Harry Potter and the Hallowed War
by Nachalas
Summary: What would you do if your only father figure died? Would you give up? Or would you rise and become something...more? Harry embarks on an adventure with a strange ally that not only changes his life, but the lives of countless others. With two worlds becoming one, what new threats are encroaching upon Earth? Determined, Harry struggles to find his place in this world.
1. Chapter 1: Coming and Going

**A/N:** Welcome to my first published piece of fan fiction ever. I really hope you enjoy this story, and if not, oh well. The idea for this story has been bumbling around in my head for some time now and I thought I'd put out the first short chapter to see what kind of reception it would garner. Please post a review once you are finished as any criticism or praise it gets is another way I can better this story. Enjoy or don't. -Nachalas

**Disclaimer: **I don't own the intellectual property of J.K.R. or any other things that people could sue me about.

**Coming and Going**

Harry Potter was in a fucked situation.

There was simply no other word to describe his current predicament.

Chained to an uncomfortable, stone chair whilst naked was very highly humiliating and painful, but that wasn't what was bothering him the most. Around him, people from Voldemorts gang were leering at him with a powerful collective glare. All the while, a crazy witch was walking around him in a perfect circle, etching runes onto the ground.

After Harry saw the Greek rune for Soul, ψυχή, he let out his second curse that night. _'This is going to be fun,' _he surmised.

Somehow or another, Harry knew Voldemort figured out about the piece of his soul locked away in Harry. He was seeing to it that it was removed unscathed. Apparently he didn't care about what his goons did to Harry as Lucius Malfoy entertained his sick habit of torturing his prisoners.

It amazed the curious part of Harry's brain that what a person could do with a three inch spike, salt, and a psychotic personality.

He was observing everything and memorizing all details thanks to his extensive Occlumency training. He didn't notice Bellatrix approach from his front since he was finding a particular crack in the wall particularly interesting. Bellatrix used this to her advantage and a cracked smile spread over her face.

She withdrew an eight inch dagger from his cloak and sunk it into Harry's left shoulder right between his collar bone and clavicle. Bellatrix was waiting for the cry of anguish, sure to escape her prey's throat.

It never came.

But what did come was a piercing, cold glare. It looked right into her eyes. Right into her soul, and it seemingly judged her and found her not worthy of his attention. The two orbs moved back to the scanning the room.

Inside Harry's head, he expected the blade so he had to time to cut off the nerve endings to his shoulder right as he saw the descent of the blade. He knew the pain would be astounding when he reconnected them, but for now, he thanked whichever deity that saw fit to allow humans to learn Occlumency.

"Scream for me, you insolent Half-Blood, or I'll take it out on your mudblood," screamed the enraged Lestrange. This was her guilty pleasure. She needed her screams or she got antsy. She took the blade and twisted the handle. Still nothing more than some quickened breathing.

Harry Potter leveled his eyes back at the witch.

He spoke so softly, yet so resolutely, it scared the mentally unstable woman. The level of coldness reached her black heart and squeezed. The promise in his words made her eyes widen and her pulse quicken.

"When I get out of this chair, I am going to kill you."

Bellatrix didn't know what to do. She hasn't been threatened that way since the first war. She was overly used to the idea of everyone fearing her. She just kept looking at him with enlarged eyes, until he started glancing around the room.

In Harry's mind, he was just counting down the minutes. So he started reminiscing about how he got to this point in his life. He couldn't help but smirk about how far he had come in such a little amount of time.

* * *

Harry's summer after his fifth year was quickly going down the drain. Thanks to the Order's threat to his uncle, Vernon was being more of a bastard than usual. After a quick back hand once in the house and a command to go clean Dudley's room, he was then kicked on his backside on his way up the stairs.

On his way past some of the family portraits hanging on the wall, his magic was flaring with his anger. It was heating up the area around him so dramatically that the frames on the pictures were glowing white hot and Petunia's potted plants were drying and dying in seconds.

Once he finished his messy cousins' room, he decided to just skip dinner and pass out on his lumpy bed.

His dreams were, as usual, his godfathers face falling through the veil over and over again. He awoke after Sirius flashed him his last smile before disappearing. Harry sat up quickly inhaling copious amounts of oxygen, looking around him for any threats.

Once he realized he was alone, his eyes clouded over with tears unshed for his godfather. It was the first time he has cried since he was seven and Dudley broke his arms with a new baseball bat his parents gave him. He realized his "lovely" family got some sort of glee when Harry cried. That was the last time he wept and stopped the more major damages his uncle and cousin caused him.

The tears started slow, and then proceeded to come in with vengeance due to all of the things that he has experienced in his short life. It seemed even shorter now that he looked back on it all.

Depression. Self-loathing. Pity. Hate. Anger. It all bubbled below the surface and he contemplated how everything was his fault. When his friends got hurt, it was his fault. Sirius dying was his fault. Everything was.

The tears slowed once more, even though he wished they'd continue. It was cathartic in a way. But he decided he better check what time it was and looked over at his bedside table for the time.

It was only 1:33 A.M.

Harry sighed as he realized it was going to be a long night. He decided that he would just go and stare out his window and follow the rains descent to the ground. The wobbly wooden chair was stiff but it suited his needs for the moment.

Then he smelled it. That smell of ozone in the air after magic is released, and it wasn't his. He jumped up and tried to 'feel' where the magic was coming from.

Forcing his own magic, like his muscles, to reach out and follow it like a bloodhound was slowly starting to work. He felt the air break apart in front of him as his magic traveled forwards. It was heading towards the window when there was a bang at his door.

His magic slammed back into his chest and where the air was separated in front of him collided back together. A sound not unlike thunder rippled through the house and caused his Aunt to shriek like a monkey in heat.

"Boy," howled his Uncle "You better not be doing that freaky nonsense in my house or I'll throttle you till you turn blue in the face!"

Harry, feeling snarky, whipped back with a remark of his own, "go to sleep fat ass before I de-evolve you back into a walrus."

The threat seemed to take a few seconds to sink in before he could hear the thunderous stomps of his super-sized uncle retreating to his bedroom.

'_What the…_' was all could the wizard could think about his recent self-discovery about his magic. Then his mind snapped back to the reason of _why_ he tried to do whatever it was he was trying to do.

His hand reflexively searched for his wand in his back trouser pocket. It was not there. He flew around only to see a tall man leaned up against his closet frame.

"Harry Potter."

'_Shit,' _was his assessment of that moment.

* * *

The boy was starring off into space. Something was wrong and Voldemort knew it. He was observing him through the wall with a one-way spell and contemplated on what he should do.

Stronger men were usually crying for their mothers by now.

But he knew Harry Potter was different. He has escaped him numerous times and thwarted him on his own planned out crusades against his enemies.

He decided it was just arrogance and knew he'd crack in time. Stubbornness and self-grandeur usually went hand in hand, he mused.

Pacing himself while he walked into the room for a more dramatic effect seemed to be useless for intimidating the boy. He opened his mouth to speak but Harry beat him to it.

"Are you done staring at me through walls, Riddle?"

Voldemort did a double take at the suddenness and the show of audacity this, _this_ child in front of him exuded in verbal form. He didn't even move his eyes away from the damned wall!

"Well Potter, it seems I have finally caught you. Any words before we move on with _my_ plans?"

Harry finally moved his eyes to lock with Voldemorts and just cracked a grin. "You caught me? I thought it was I who _apparated_ into your secret meeting."

Voldemort's eye twitched slightly. "I knew you were coming, I was planned for your arrival." He figured that was good enough to stall the boy until he came up with a sensible excuse to not seem incompetent in his follower's eyes.

"Right, the look on you and your posse's faces was quite humorous. In fact, I intend to capture a still of that event and frame it once I go home."

"_Crucio!" _

Nothing happened. Harry just sat there with a bored expression splashed over his face. Voldemort's eyes grew wide for a split second until he regained his composure.

"Such anger, Tom. Maybe you should go get that looked at, along with all those other skeletons in that closet of yours. I hear it is spawned from repressed homosexual desire."

Something was definitely wrong, Voldemort figured. He looked down at his wand to look for some sort of reason why his spell failed. He flicked his wand in the general direction of one of his Death Eaters and they fell to the ground screaming.

'_So it isn't my wand…'_ he thought while he walked towards this child. He looked right into green orbs of defiance trying to gain entrance with legilimency for some answers.

He did not expect what he found and soon found himself on his ass half-way across the room.

"Clever Potter, real clever." Inside he was terrified, and he had reason to be. But he put it behind him and decided to just get on with his plans.

A smirking Harry Potter just sat there while Bellatrix tried to help Voldemort up only to find herself on the ground squirming beneath his Cruciatus.

"I need no one's help."

'_And I'm the child'_ thought the amused hero as he viewed the exchange. His plans were coming to fruition and he knew it wouldn't be long now. A sigh escaped his lips as he tried to relax on the cold slab underneath him.

* * *

"Who are you?" yelled a panicked Harry.

"Calm down, Harry, I'm here to help."

This man was dressed in all black but stylishly so. Black suit pants, black silk shirt, and black jacket. It was as if he was going clubbing after this little meeting.

For all Harry knew of this mysterious guest, he probably was.

"You mind telling me why you are in my bedroom? And toss in your name while you're at it," Harry demanded slowly.

This man just smirked at Harry and moved to be within five feet of the surprised young man. When he reached his destination he sat down and before he fell to the ground on his arse a chair faded into existence beneath him like it had always been there.

Even more disturbing was the man's physical appearance. He was a mirror reflection of Harry, yet a more stylish one. Harry couldn't help but to give the man a once over to make sure his eyes weren't deceiving him.

"Hello Harry, I'm Harry Potter."

To say silence reigned supreme within the room would have been a damning understatement.

"Impossible, I'm me," said an obviously shell-shocked and confused Harry.

The well-dressed Potter smirked and replied, "True, yet so am I. Tell me, do you know anything of inter-dimensional universal travel?"

The shaggy Harry made an intelligent sounding snort and gave a shrug. This just made the other Harry chuckle and lean forward on his chair slightly.

"To put it simply, I come from an alternate universe parallel to yours. I tried going to a transcendental universe of mine but…but it was far too twisted for me to actually make a lick of sense of anything that happened there. For example, the whole social structure was set up to follow the people who sung the best on a reality television show. I got the hell outta dodge within the ten minutes it took me to get some information out of a singing dog walker." After saying this, he shivered slightly.

"How can I trust you? I mean, this could just be a load of shyte. Tell me something only I would know," Harry inquired with wide eyes.

The newcomer lightly tapped his chin for a few seconds and suddenly his eyes got a mysterious tinkle in them.

"You've had a soft spot for our mutual friend Hermione since third year," he answered chipperly.

A slight blush creeped across Harry's face but he just shook his head. '_This has to be a dream. Or I've finally gone mad.'_

"No you haven't gone mad, but it is reality. I know this is rather peculiar and I must say, you are taking this rather well. In fact, one version of us chased me around with a leg from that chair at your desk," he snorted while he finished this statement.

"Its crossed my mind, actually it's still a rather tempting idea. I just want to see what the hell is going on," stated a rather distressed looking Harry.

"Well before you starting swinging, slugger, let me just say that I come to help you out. I know our time-lines are different but situations, people, and evil dark lords never change."

The suddenly weak kneed boy sat heavily on the window sill and let out a huff of air he didn't realize he was holding. He needed answers, but couldn't this have waited? His godfather just died for Christ's sake!

"Why now?" he asked suddenly.

The traveling Harry looked like he was expecting this and showed it by smiling slightly, "because you, my troubled young friend, are on the verge of total collapse or rising like a phoenix from its ashes.

"The last four Harry's I have met, all committed suicide before I got to them. I don't know why some of us do it while some of us soldier on but that's just one of those funny things about the universe, I guess." He stood up and began to calmly walk back and forth before Harry.

"I guess, you could say, that Dumbledore thought that his protégé to the light could push on through this trying time. He was wrong on so many occasions as I've seen myself dead more times than I care to reiterate. So I usually just hop from one universe to the other giving helping advice to other versions of 'us' but that is usually it. I even usually disguise myself as someone else or even take the form of one of our friends," he finished lightly.

"Let me get this straight, you break the laws of magic, space and time just to help out other versions of us. I mean that's good and all but why? I'm just having a hard time grasping as to why you would do it."

"Good question. Well, it's what my universe does. You have more than likely heard of guardian angels, right?" This universe's Harry nodded. "That's basically us. The founders of my universe, the ones from Hogwarts, instead of setting up a school, actually set up a technomancy academy. They broke the dividing line between the mundanes and magicals and they have been combining our magic with their technology. Around two hundred years in your time after the alliance, their crowning jewel was revealed. The developed a machine called the Time-displacement Accelerator." The funny part of this statement was the fact that guardian-Harry stated it as if it was common knowledge.

Harry just stared at his counter-part with his mouth hanging open. He got the jest of it, but he just wished he understood how it worked.

"Don't get me wrong, Harry, not everyone from my universe is all sunshine and daises. Sometimes you'll get a disturbance that will cause a ripple through many universes. That's what causes wars or people rising up in power suddenly for no reason. I can see what you are thinking and no, Voldemort is just a child prodigy gone wrong. You only here about the good ones," he winked towards the gaping young version in front of him.

"Okay I think I understand. But why have you revealed yourself to me? I mean, what makes me so special?"

Harry thought how best to reply when he snapped his fingers as if coming upon an epiphany.

"Boredom. I've been doing this for many years now. I actually want to see a version of myself be happy instead of some emotional child throwing tantrums every now and then."

Harry scoffed, "I do not throw tantrums!"

His older-other self stared pointedly at his counter-part and just stated, "What about when your friends couldn't mail you and you had a shit fit whenever you met them at your Godfather's house?"

"Point taken."

"Good, now we can move onto the juicer bits of why I am doing this. First and foremost, I want you to survive the final battle. Second, I want you to get a girlfriend. That fiasco with Cho Chang does not count. That girl has issues."

The current universe's Harry couldn't help but laugh lightly. He instantly felt bad about laughing so soon after Sirius death.

But he couldn't help but feel that things were going to get interesting soon.

Either that or the shit is going to hit the fan.


	2. Chapter 2: Brothers

**A/N:** I know it's been a couple of months since the first chapter, but I have good reasons for it being postponed. I've recently had to move due to basic training in the Air Force and also had a root canal done on my back molar. It's been daises for the past week or so. I hope this chapter is to your liking. Please review with questions or ideas. I know where I am taking this story, but I like a little audience interaction here and there. Enjoy!

**Brothers**

The young man couldn't stop the chuckle that escaped his throat when he thought about his first meeting with his...alternate self '_bloody physics messing with my_ _brain.'_

Done reminiscing for the moment, he caught sight of Bellatrix finishing the runic set that spiraled towards him from the outer-most sequence. Interested in the design, he followed it towards him.

Of course having to skip the lines that were out of sight behind him.

Voldemort was pacing in front of him, wondering about the supposed capture of Potter. He would casually glance Harry's way every now and again.

"I must admit, I am surprised at your seemingly uninterested appearance about being in our most pure company," He-who-must-not-be-named drawled towards Harry.

Harry, ever the most gracious of guests, just smirked genially and replied, "I came to the conclusion that your hospitality would be more welcoming than sitting in my apartment."

Harry was also a smart-ass.

You-Know-Who just gave a little chuckle despite himself, then turned towards Harry fully and approached. He bent down so you he could be face to face with him.

"You know this is going to end badly for you right? Why would you sacrifice yourself instead of fighting? Tired of seeing your friends die around you, Potter?"

"What can I say, I was bored," he also let fly a little chuckle himself.

"By the by, how did you get your eyes red like that? A little cosmetic surgery, Tommy?"

He topped it off with a salacious and over-exaggerated wink.

Voldemort just shook his head and leaned back. '_Why is he so unconcerned with events?'_

"Ready to die, Harry?"

"When the time presents itself."

The tall wrath-like man walked out of the rune spiral and turned to a watching low-level death eater. He reached out and summoned the man by the throat to him, and in one swift motion cut his throat from ear to ear.

Harry sighed while Voldemort let the blood poured in the inverted dimple before the runes. '_Wasteful sod ain't he?_'

While the runes started emitting a soft hum and shallow iridescent blue throughout the room, Harry did the one thing he usually did when situations like these arose.

He started humming his favorite Kansas song.

'_What can I say, Kansas kicks all kinds of ass,_' he thought to himself humorously.

Minutes that passed like lifetimes crawled by until he started to feel a pull from his head. Then all at once, pain that would usually accompany being kicked in the jewels spread throughout his body.

Harry didn't even move a muscle.

'_Hermione always did say that I too used to pain._'

He crossed his eyes as he started to see a very faint white wisp leaking out of his head. The humor aspect did not escape Harry even though he was in a startling amount of pain.

Finally, what after felt like centuries, the wisp left his head and darted towards Voldemort's chest in hopes of joining with the macerated remains of his soul.

Harry had a whole plot-line for the lonely piece of soul trying to reunite with his homely brother. More like a brother who had numerous genetic defects and was dropped several times on his head as a child.

Then all at once, the tear jerking story came to a halting stop when Voldemort captured the piece in a soul jar. '_Damn Voldemort, even ruining my story time._'

"Well, that was anticlimactic. I'm pretty sure fate has lost interest in the plot of our story, Tom. I am so sorry." Harry finished that sentence with a downcast face and fake tears swimming in his emerald eyes.

Voldemort just looked over at Harry incredulously and just hiked up an eyebrow at Harry's antics, all the while his thoughts telling him something was eerily wrong with this event. He turned to Bellatrix and barked, "run a thorough check of the grounds and wards, something feels...off."

Finally, giving his sides thorn his full attention, he pulled out his wand and leveled it right between the mans eyes.

Harry just looked at Voldemort's red eyes and just waited for the predictability of Voldemort's' ignorance to kick in.

"Time to die, Harry."

The green was already swelling at the end of Tom's wand.

Harry just shook his head.

"Tom, death and life have nothing to do with what is to come in our future. We are but a blip in the cosmos. We are the protons and electrons of the atoms in our universe. If one of us goes, nothing will change. I tell you this, not to try and let you see the errors in your ways," here Harry paused for dramatic effect, "I tell you this so you know how irrevocably and undeniably how small and insignificant you are in the scale of things."

To say that Tom was angered by this would be like trying to say that politicians were slippery beings. Understatement of the millennium.

"I will change the world and be known for all time for my ideals. My practices will be held above all others, my magic will decimate all opposition, and the universe will fear my wrath," Voldemort bellowed with a manic gleam in his eyes and magic swirling his robes around his legs.

"And that is why, you mean nothing," Harry simply said. Simple and to the point. That is how things should always be. Simple. Straight-forward. Clean.

_'Here we go.'_

"Avada kedavra!"

Green light swam in his eyes.

Green on green.

Clean.

* * *

"So, Harry, I know you must have a lot of questions, but foremost I believe that with out names being the same, I should come into a new name so we can speak easily without confusion," the multidimensional Harry told...Harry.

_'Yeah, I can see how this will get confusing. Even my thoughts are confused.'_

The shorter and younger Harry nodded and asked, "What do you have in mind?"

Multidimensional Harry just hummed in his seat and shook his foot that was in the air while in thought.

"Gabriel. I always liked that named. Plus the namesake is a bit of a bad ass. Although, he can't hold his liquor."

Harry just blinked. And blinked once more. Then made some kind of choking sound in his throat.

"Are you saying Angels actually exist?"

_Gabriel_ just laughed and stated, "Angels and demons exist on another plane of existence. Among other beings we won't talk about until the subject comes up. The angels and demons tend to show up on Earthern realms more often than not because the particle dispersion is easier to handle than going to the others. Here they can cause chaos and miracles more easily."

_'Well...shit.'_

Harry just stared at Gabriel and had to ask, "What happened to Sirius when he died?"

Gabriel, seeming to see the question coming, sighed.

"Sirius has left this plane of existence and passed into what you would call Heaven for judgment. It's wholly different than what your religions think it is, but the premise is the same. And no, I can't tell you much more about things to do with them. It's part of my deal with them."

"Will you get into trouble for being here?"

"When I started doing this gig, I did it for the right reasons. I didn't do it to just watch out for my other selves, I did it for the future of this planet. I like Earth, like I like my own. It's beauty can't be found elsewhere. The angels wouldn't have let me transverse the realms otherwise. They are strict when it comes to letting people meddle with Earth. They think of this place as their little brother or sister. To mess with it, you mess with them," Gabriel chuckled at that thought.

"For higher beings, they sure think like humans. I thought they would be...I don't know, indifferent to us."

"When humans first started to show up, or so I was told, the angels didn't particularly know what to think of us. They never had contact with other beings besides demons and the elven. But over-"

Harry interrupted with a question, "Elven? Elves exist?"

Gabriel mocked _'tisking'_ at Harry and started again, "Don't you know it's rude to interrupt? I hope not everyone on this realm is rude, too."

Then the multidimensional being did the mature thing and stuck out his tongue.

Harry followed suit with his own tongue wagging.

"Sorry, it's just this a lot to learn all of a sudden. It's startling. I mean, bloody hell, yesterday I would of said angels and demons were fictitious and and elves were over-romanticized beings from literature."

"Yeah, the elves are a prissy lot, but deathly stronger than you can imagine. They are more warrior than magic user. Even though they can use magic when needed. Just don't let them know I said that prissy bit about them to a elf or I'll be getting a beating from one of my trainers."

He just followed that up with a mirth filled laughed while clearly having a nostalgic moment.

Harry sat bewildered, he didn't know what to believe. He just met this...person not two hours ago and here he was humoring him by listening. But, seeing as he was in the best of positions and Gabriel knew a lot about him by the fact that he has never, ever, told anyone about his little crush for Hermione.

"Anyways, the angels just watched for thousands of years. Doing nothing in our times of strife or prosperity. Just watching. They didn't know what to think of us until one little tiny event changed their views. It was a woman trying to escape a group of men around eleven thousand years ago. This was a high time for our world as magic and technology was advanced more so than it is now, but that's beside the point. Well, they eventually cornered this woman, but all of a sudden a young man came to her aid out of the blue. The woman didn't know him, and he didn't know her. He was just doing what he thought was right."

Harry was enraptured with the story, it sounded hard to believe but he hoped it was true. He wished people existed on Earth like this young man.

Gabriel continued, "The young man fought as much as he could for as long as he could, but the group of wretches overpowered him soon enough. They planned on killing him then taking the woman as some sort of trophy. As the man laid dying on the ground, he looked up into the sky and whispered something that would change the angels mind about 'just watching'. He whispered, _'tevakna ni ziravdo,'_ which means justice is dead in their language."

"What did the angels do? Please, tell me this has a happy ending. I don't think I could do with another bad ending." Gabriel couldn't help but chuckle at Harry's pout.

"Well, the angels being emboldened by this courageous man's actions and words traveled to Earth for the first time since our first appearance on Earth. They ended the group of men that did this to the man and were harassing the young woman. That's the thing you have to understand about angels. They don't fight, they end. They are stronger than you could even imagine. But anyways, after all was said and done, they removed their presence from the woman's mind and traveled back to their realm but with the man this time. They took him in and trained him. They gave him power, he gave them morals and honor. It was the beginning of our unification with the angel realm."

"Holy shit, so humans can be recruited by angels?"

Harry was still blown away by the things he was hearing. It was amazing. It was hope.

"Sort of. Most of the time, when a person dies and goes on to judgment, they can recruit you there. Other times, with dimensions that have the ability to transverse dimensions and realms, like mine, can be recruited before death. But there isn't many universes like mine where we can do that. There is only, I believe, six of me with the ability to transverse realms. And I've had to end three of them when they did so by dark means. That was a depressive time for me, but it needed to be done."

"Wow, I don't think I could ever kill myself, even if it was another me, not me. Er, you know what I mean."

Gabriel chuckled and patted him on the shoulder and said softly, "After the first thousand years go by, you find that things get easier to do. I used to be deathly shy and introverted. Now, I enjoy going to outings with friends and I can actually talk during group tactics. All it takes is time."

"Well, seeing as your seemingly immortal and I'm not. I'm thinking I'm going to be stuck this way," he snorted out.

Gabriel winked and said, "You never know what the future holds for us, no one does. Not even fate."

Harry just shook his head, not wanting to open the can of worms labeled fate.

"On to the present then. I am wanting you to strengthen your body some, as malnutrition has pretty much stunted your growth and weight and this can also damage your magic. Healthy body, healthy mind and all that crap. But before we get into your future training regiments, I have a gift for you."

Harry looked at him wearily, "A gift? I am not going to have to sell my soul or anything am I?"

His alternate self barked out a laugh and continued, "No, your soul shall remain intact and yours. Although, for the first few weeks, you are going to think this gift is a curse. You shall look at the world differently than you have. What I'm going to do, is open your mind."

Harry blinked once again. He was never going to need eye drops in his life again.

"Open my mind? What does that mean, and why does it sound like something my Divination teacher would say?"

Gabriel graced him with another round of barking laughter.

"Well, it's not that kind of mind opening experience but one that will let you see things in a...different light. I can't really explain it to you, as everyone experiences it in a different way. This is totally your choice to accept it or not. I will not force you to take it. But it will give you and advantage you won't find anywhere else. Unless you happen upon a stubborn angel, but I doubt that."

Apparently, sarcasm runs rampant in Gabriel's world.

"Well, I just have this aversion to accepting people I barely know to giving me things. Last time that happened, one of my friends nearly died."

"Ah yes, well, I guess trust issues was going to come up eventually. I could do a bonding of truth to prove that I'm a swell chap and mean no harm?"

"You're a smart ass, aren't you?"

"Well I did get the wonderful duty of watching a realm that was known for every human being a liar. That was a confusing century and half, let me tell you. Okay, I'm a bit of smart-ass but I'm a charming smart-ass. But I promise you, by bonding of truth, that I mean you no harm."

Harry looked reluctant for a few seconds then decided he would do the bond and see how things went. Like he thought, things were going to get interesting, and he needed all the help he could get.

"How do we do the bond? I'm not particularly knowledgeable in magic like that, I just know a few spells and some basic Occlumency."

"Yes, we will work on your laziness in the future. You're a wizard, it's time you started acting like a responsible one."

Gabriel finished his sentence through Harry's exclamation of "Oi!" about the laziness.

"To do the bond, all we need is prick on our palms so blood will start to drip, and circle of salt and a firm handshake. That's pretty much it, but I will chant a few syllables to initiate the bond."

"How do I get into these kinds of situations," Harry asked no one in particular.

"Because, we are awesome," Gabriel stated like it was a known fact.

Harry snorted as his others antics.

"You know for an immortal, you are pretty childish."

"I have to stay sane somehow. Now give me your hand before you drag us off on another topical tangent."

After Harry handed his hand over, Gabriel pulled out a knife from inside his jacket and pricked his hand hard enough to draw blood.

He put the knife on the table behind him and withdrew a pouch of salt from his jacket as well, Harry got the impression that the jacket had expansion pocket built in and suddenly felt the need to get one these jackets as well. Being crafty is one thing, being crafty and looking snazzy is another.

With the salt circle around them Gabriel pricked his palm and put the knife back in his jacket, he turned to Harry and said as if knowing the question forming, "The salt is a pure symbol. It gives the bond strength in the fact that I'm doing this with pure intentions and pure motivation."

_'Well that answers that' _Harry thought with a snort.

"Alrighty then, give me a firm hand shake and don't let go until I do. This will feel a little weird."

Right after that statement, Gabriel smacked his palm into Harry's with a rumble of deep magic. Harry's eyes opened a little wider while Gabriel began his chant.

"Verikarum julictis brohol venool trasa!" A deep thrumming pulsed through Harry's body into his heart. Then to his head where a presence of familiarity and comfort. It was a feeling he would correlate to that of having a brother.

Family.

"Wow, it feels...good. It's like what I would think of having a brother felt like."

Gabriel turned compassionate eyes towards Harry and stated, "It is a wonderful feeling, I never tire of doing it with another one of me. Anyways, how this works is when ever one of us feel anger or untrustworthy of the other, that feeling with get sent through the link to let you feel aware of the other. It lets me trust you while you trust me to do what is right by both of us. And yeah, the only downside is, we can't prank each other. I usually get a prank or two in before I have to do the bond. Maybe I can bribe one of your friends to do them..."

Gabriel finished this with a truly devious look on his face while tapping his chin with an index finger. Harry just looked horrified. Rightfully horrified.

"Please, I'll be good. No pranks. I don't need to know the humility you can teach m. I'll be a good boy," Harry stammered out.

Gabriel just laughed for a few seconds and sat down once more in his comfy chair, "Don't worry, Harry, humility is good for the soul."

He finished with a wink. A wink following a conversation about pranks is never a good thing. Never.

Harry groaned feeling slightly doomed by force of embarrassment.

"I have a feeling, I am going to regret letting you help me. And here I thought I was a nice guy. I guess not everyone of me is nice. Well seeing as you had to kill some of us, it makes sense. But still, you are evil. Like the kind of evil that has a reserved spot in the deepest spot of hell."

"Well I am glad you are making jokes and still not moping about your godfather. You need to move on, Sirius will be fine, he is with your parents, I'm sure, and they are having a grand time doing something they enjoy."

Strangely, that did make Harry feel better.

"You know, you have the weirdest methods for self-improvement that actually works."

"Because I have the best method. Truth. Truth gives the best help."

Harry just shook his head and sat back down on his scruffy looking bed.

Gabriel crossed his right leg over his left again and returned to the conversation of earlier once more, "Now, would you like this gift or no? Like I said, I will only offer it, never force it. And it will be hard for awhile with it, but I promise to help with it how I can. I only can go so far, since it will be different than mine."

"I will accept the gift, but what did you mean by it being a curse?"

"I didn't say it was a curse, I just said you would think it one for the beginning. It's just harder for some people to grasp it's full potential and use it for bettering their mind."

Harry didn't know what to think about that but he knew he needed the help. That extra edge, and damned be the repercussions.

"Alright, let's do it."

Gabriel snorted but held back the retort his mind instinctively supplied and raised one hand to lay it on the top of Harry's head.

"Once I do this, I can't undo it."

This gave Harry pause, but he wasn't going back now. Gryffindor was his middle name. Well his other middle name.

"Do it."

Gabriel put his hand down on his head and for a few seconds nothing happened.

Then, out of the blue, Harry felt something _shift_ in his head. Like when a tooth was loose and you could feel it move. Right after this anomaly, pain soared into his head like none other. Pain beyond the normal definition of pain. It felt like someone was pulling his brain in different directions.

Then the pain stopped.

"That was me pushing the neuron forest of your brain past the normal. Next I'm going to activate them. I suggest grabbing the arms of your chair and biting on this."

Gabriel produced a leather strap from his jacket and put it between Harry's teeth.

"Bite hard, regrowing a tongue is a pain."

Then the man put both hands on either side of his head and closed his eyes. By now, Harry was worringly waiting for the pain to start once more. Like waiting before a surgery, knowing you can't back out of it.

The pain didn't take long to start again.

It was a new pain. A strange pain. A pain that was unlike any he ever experienced before, even the pain a minute ago he experienced couldn't be on the same level as this pain.

It was pleasure mixed with pain. He wanted to moan as much as he wanted to scream his throat raw. It was as if his brain was berating him for now just waking him up. But only with the caressing touch a lover would have for their mate. It was a beautiful agony.

Then it stopped once more.

"It is done."

Harry, eyes still closed, was slumped over in his rickety chair. He breathed in deeply, finding satisfaction in the new understanding of what breathing did for him. The rejuvenation. The exhilaration of life entering his body and expanding his lungs for what would be once more in the millions of times they have filled. Yet this time was different. It brought tears to his closed eyes. It was beauty beyond his understanding of the concept.

It was simple. It was beautiful.

He opened his eyes, and looked at Gabriel in a new light. Eyes moist with the sensations he never knew to exist.

"I...I can see...everything."

Gabriel smiled like a brother would when his younger brother came home from his first day of school, telling him of his new friends and adventures he got into.

"Welcome to the first day of the rest of your life. Enjoy it."

Harry smiled at Gabriel.

"Thank you, Gabriel."

Harry cried dignified tears in front of someone for the first time.


	3. Chapter 3: To catch evolution

**A/N:** Hey readers, sorry for the huge relay between updates. Real life has been bogging down my time with both the Air Force and work. I don't get much computer access at base, but since I'm back for awhile, I'll be able to update more frequently. Please, leave a review for constructive criticism as it does help the story tremendously. Enjoy!

_Standard disclaimers apply_

**To catch evolution, one must...**

The skies over Little Whinging decided is was time for a late afternoon shower the following day of Harry's enlightenment thanks to Gabriel. Everything was in its normal routine and the few people who were unlucky enough to be out scurried home as if the devil was on their heels. The normalcy of it was the only sign that this was a muggle neighborhood. If one were to look closer, the house at Number Four Privet drive would have shattered numerous belief practices.

Ten minutes after the rain started, a short and thin teenager with wild raven hair bolted out the back door to the house and slumped to the increasingly soggy ground. He was shaking, not from tears, but from feeling. Too much, too soon as the saying goes.

Following after him was a man who could have passed for his twin, if it weren't for the obvious differences in height and age.

Harry Potter was this teenager and he was having a _weird _day. And that was saying something.

"Harry, you have to breath, try to focus on the rains feeling as it impacts your body. Dwell in that feeling. Drown in it," this rather macabre statement flowed out of Gabriel's mouth with a hint of affection and understanding. Seeing as he was the one to cause this, he should know.

"Why, Gabriel, why does it hurt so much. It was fine at first, perfect even, then I feel like I am taking in everything at once," Harry stated while he started to sway from side to side, "too many sensations...too many things happening...h-how can there be this much going on around us."

Gabriel looked at him with pitying eyes and knelt beside his wayward self and put his arm around him to steady Harry. He then used his hand to tilt up Harry's head to face the lightly falling rain.

"You need to get this part over with, Harry. The longer you try to avoid it, the worse it gets over time."

"I _really_ hate you," Harry managed to growl out through clinched teeth in obvious pain.

"This will pass, the pain is just a temporary time for your body to get used to the new ways your brain will interpret signals from your nerves. After this, it's pretty much smooth sailing, all you will have to work on is your personality differences, but that will be easy enough."

Harry really hated Gabriel for saying this with a chipper tone. It was just creepy. Like a puppy getting kicked and wanting to keep being kicked. It just didn't make sense. But it did now, and Harry hated the new understanding his open mind now gave him.

"Lets get out of the rain, your sarcasm tells me that the symptoms are abating."

So they moved, into the house, at a shuffle until they were back in Harry's room. Harry laid down on the bed with a hiss at the sense of vertigo he got and Gabriel sitting himself in the chair at the desk.

Harry looked over at Gabriel with annoyed eyes, "This is going to be a long summer, isn't it?"

Gabriel couldn't fight the smirk spreading over his face and said, "You have no idea."

* * *

The clouds over the Derwent Close neighborhood in Huntingdon, England was just starting to open up around the same time Harry laid down on his bed. The house on the corner was home to a family that was both well-liked and respected. Three people lived there that everyone in the neighborhood appreciated having as neighbors.

As for right then, only one person was in the house, and she was reading the back of a box that supplied instructions on how to make homemade curry sauce.

"Bollocks," she muttered while putting away the box and just getting out her reliable box of potato mash.

"If you can't cook, might as well try to make it look like you can," she stated to herself with a bemused expression on her petite face.

While she set the water to boil, she went up to her room to change into something more comfortable for the inevitable war of cutlery she was known for in the household.

Her curly brunette locks were in a ponytail and were fighting for freedom against the minuscule band that held it together. _'I should just cut it'_ she thought to herself on her way back to the kitchen.

She let out a little chuckle at the thought and just imagined to looks on her friends faces.

While she was attempting to boil water, a strikingly orange cat with a squat face lumbered into the kitchen looking for attention after a particularly satisfying nap.

"Mrow."

Not seeing the entrance of her pet, the girl leaped into the air and knocked her head against the hanging pans over the center island. The cat just watched it all from the chair he made himself home on, as if this happened everyday.

"Christ, Crookshanks, what did you do that for!"

"Mrow."

"I'm talking to a cat, I swear I am going to end up a crazy cat lady in my old age," the girl said under her breath as she massaged her scalp to try and alleviate the burning pain.

After making sure she wasn't bleeding, she went to the refrigerator on the other side of the center island and fetched herself an icepack and glared daggers at the cat.

"You are lucky I can't cook or I'd be having cat for lunch."

Crookshanks just blinked at her and started to clean his bottle-brush tail to point out his indifference.

The young woman made her way back to the pot of water to see it's progress and sitting across from the cat while facing the stove. Admittedly, she was lonely so giving her pet the cold shoulder wasn't going to help matters.

She sighed.

Picking up the book that was on the island, one could see the book was strange just by it's title. That is, if the person that was looking was a muggle. If a magical person looked at it, they would just pass it off as a normal thing to see.

The girl turned the page and looked up to eye the pot. She really didn't want to set the house on fire just by boiling water. It almost happened once. Really.

"I'm so bored, Crookshanks. What should we do today?"

"Mrow."

"You know I don't have friends my age in the neighborhood. Plus, Harry hasn't replied and Ron is being...odd."

"Mrow."

Turning completely to the cat now, she continued on her topic.

"Yeah, Ron keeps alluding to romantic interests. He's as subtle as a brick through a glass window," she giggled at the comparison.

"Mrrroooowww," Crookshanks let out in seemingly exasperation.

She turned back her head from the cautious glance at the pot and shrugged her shoulders.

"I don't know, Harry usually replies quickly but maybe he is still upset over Sirius. You know how close they were," she finished sadly.

Without bothering to reply, Crookshanks padded over to his companion and rubbed his head against the girls shoulder in a placating manner.

Smiling down at her friend she scratched at hard to reach spot on his neck and chuckled.

"You're the best cat ever, you know that right?"

Crookshanks just looked at her like it was an obvious statement.

Deciding it was enough moping, she emptied the contents of the mash package and walked to the full-length mirror in the hallway leading to the front door. She sighed as she unbuttoned the top three buttons of her shirt and pulled it over her right shoulder. A faint pink scar could be seen leading from her collarbone towards the cleft between her breasts on its descent to her left hipbone.

Hermione sighed as she traced it with her fingers, "No one wants to date a freak, let alone a bookworm."

Running up to her room to grab the vials of Murtlap Essence that Madame Pomphrey provided for her.

"I hope this clears the scarring up soon, I want to go swimming again," she murmured as she applied it to her front. After letting it sit for a minute, she washed off the residue and hurried down to the kitchen to check on her lunch. Seeing that the boiling water was doing its work, she put a tablespoon of butter into the mix and stirred a few times for good measure.

Walking back to the island she sat down noticing that Crookshanks had wandered off to elsewhere in the house. Picking up her book on _The Standard Book of Spells: Grade 6_ she continued to where she left off on an interesting charm that liquifies any non-organic matter and shapes it into anything with equal mass that the caster wants before solidifying again. _'I love magic,' _Hermione thought, priding herself on her near-encyclopedia knowledge of useful spells.

Noticing that the mash was ready, she walked over to the pot and stirred a couple more times before placing the contents onto a plate. She walked back to the island and propped the book up so she could keep reading while eating.

She felt alone without her friends there. Without the soulful green-eyes of her best-friend and the laughing blue-eyes of her heckling buddy.

She wished Harry would call and talk nonsense to take their minds off things. She would even go for a letter from Ronald Weasley asking for assistance about his summer Potions essay. Well, maybe not the latter option. But definitely hearing the voice of her first friend would do her a world of good. As she was thinking these thoughts while nonchalantly reading the book in front of her, a snow-white owl swooped through her open kitchen window and landed on the back of a chair to the side of the distracted girl.

"Hoot."

"Merlin," Hermione shouted while once again jumping in her seat, thankfully not knocking her head on anything this time.

Finally noticing the amused looking owl she shrieked in happiness and nearly hugged the stuffing out of the poor creature. Getting her composure back together, she gently placed the ruffled and agitated owl down on the island surface.

"Oh Hedwig, I'm so sorry, I was just so happy at seeing the most beautiful owl on the planet!"

Hedwig preened at the affection and made Hermione chuckle at the obviously proud and vain bird.

"So you have a letter for me? No? Then why are you...Oh! You want me to take a letter to Harry, right?" The owl nodded positively and hopped over to the mash in the plate and nibbled on a bit in curiosity.

"Squawk!" Hedwig proclaimed in obvious enjoyment of Hermione's now forgotten meal.

Seeing that Hedwig was obviously enjoying her lunch for her, she went to the large mahogany desk that her father kept in the living room. Sitting down and retrieving a fountain pen from its cup, she starred at a blank sheet of notebook paper wondering where she should start.

Hermione didn't really know what she should bring up first. Things were warring for attention in her logical mind, making a proper mess of the normal order she was used to. Should she bring up Ron's peaking romantic interest? Should she ask if he was doing okay with those horrible relatives of his? Maybe she should see if he would like a visit from her in the near future. She knew she didn't live particularly far from his house. It was close to Crawley from what she understood. About an hour or so on the M25 if she took her parents auto. Even faster if she took the Knight Bus. But she was getting ahead of herself, she needed to write him to make sure it was alright to visit.

Leaning over the paper, her curls fell onto the desk to the left of the paper, and she brought the pen to paper and stopped. Leaning back once more while blowing air out between her lips in frustration, wondering why it was so difficult to just write a simple letter to her friend. Deciding to just get it over with, she brought the pen back to paper.

_Dear Harry,..._

* * *

"Ugh, why does my body feel like it got run over by a pack mule and it's carriage?" Harry shot Gabriel the question while he was laying in bed still reeling from the overtaxed sensations his brain threw at him.

Gabriel leaned back in the desk chair he commandeered and chuckled softly for a second before leaning forward once more, "Well, to explain that I'll have to explain some more of the specifics of what I unleashed," he paused for a second, seemingly gathering his thoughts together, "what I did when I activated the dormant neural pathways was to unlock your brains higher thought form. But besides that, your brain will analyze your DNA, as you know it, and...improve upon it."

Harry just looked at him, "Are you saying that my brain is doing all this without my knowing?"

"Of course, your body does millions of things without your knowing of it. You don't know how oxygen replenishes your body with life, you just know it does it. I mean, if you took to learning independently about the body, you'll figure it out but that isn't the point."

Stifling a sigh, Harry just looked back up the ceiling and just now noticed all the different grooves and pot marks dimpling it. He just _knew_ where and how they came to be. He could even see how the brush marks from where the painters used too much paint and caused it peak downwards slightly from the excess paint. _'This is going to be distracting.'_

Gabriel stood up and walked to the window, clasping his hands behind his back and looked over the neighborhood. "You will look at things differently than the normal human would, because you are now more than human. What I did was speed up the process of evolution for you; you aren't a freak of nature or something like I know you would think of yourself. I just gave you a head start. A twenty thousand year head start, but I regress."

He couldn't help the snort that rolled through him but he groaned after the jostling aggravated his sore muscles and bones. "Can you explain why my body feels this way, yet?"

Gabriel looked over his shoulder at him laying there, "You've already grown a couple centimeters. You are going to need nutrients to keep yourself nourished. But yes, I'll continue," he went back to looking out over the lawn, "Your brain is optimizing your DNA and enhancing what is already there. You are short due to malnourished childhood and lack of continuous exercise. It is just working through the kinks with a fine-toothed comb, so to speak. What you are feeling is essentially growing pains, but it is more than that, it is unlocking the dormant code of your DNA to bring it to where it should be at when human evolution completes. You are adapting to the environment that has ailed humans since the beginning."

Taking a deep breath and releasing it, he turned and sat on the sill while crossing his arms.

"You won't get sick due to your new and improved natural defenses, like your white blood cells. You will grow into your most optimum condition and you will stay that way. If you stop eating as much as your should, your body will start to wither, due to you needing more nourishment thanks to your sped up bodily processes. You eat too much, and you will put on weight but it will be lost quickly if you aren't careful, you just have to find a medium for your body."

"Yeah, this still sounds like a curse and a burden," causing a bark of laughter from Gabriel.

"Oh stop whining, you are such a glass half-empty kind of guy. I haven't finished my lecture yet, Mr. Potter, so shut up and suck it up because we are just getting started."

Harry just looked back over at him and glowered before giving it up and returning to ponder the ceiling. It was easing his enhanced analytical mind from taking in everything around him.

"Moving on, you will still be you. You will just have to practice on focusing on specific things when you need to. Your emotions will be dulled into a dull roar, compared to what you used to be like, that is saying something," Harry scowled and let out an "Oi!" in indignation but Gabriel just continued on pretended not to hear him.

"People will look at you differently, because you will be different. I haven't had to _unlock_ one of our counterparts brains before just because they all usually refused, the ones that wanted it done just seemed a tad too eager for my liking. Good instincts on my part because the more I looked into them, the darker they were. They weren't all bad, but still, temptation is a dangerous thing."

Harry just looked at him with a dumbfounded expression marring his face, "This is bloody weird talking about me, yet they aren't me. Why am I so different from the rest of them?"

"Well, it all has to do with the choices people make. Some made you better, some made you worse. And of course, some just made you in the middle, the gray part part of the human condition. Personally, the gray is my more favorite personality of ours. It's refreshing to have an indifferent viewpoint of certain things. The others, sometimes, would give us one hell of an ego. Those are annoying. Like I said, it all has to do with choices, and not just your own. When one of the choices come about that hasn't been done before, a new reality splits off into a new direction and it separates itself from that reality."

Looking back over at Gabriel while making a fist with his hands to relief some of the tension building in the joints, he asked, "One thing I don't quite understand, what about souls? I mean, I know we have them, I seen my...Godfathers when a dementor tried to give him The Kiss. How are we different if we all share the same soul?"

Gabriel, with wide-eyes, glanced at him with a shocked expression, "You are the first one to ask that question! I guess your brain is starting to pick up the pace already, that's good. Right, well I can't really go into details due to my responsibilities as a guardian because it would create problems if the wrong sort got hold of said details. But what I can tell you is that we are all linked in a way. We all either move onto what you would call heaven or hell. It doesn't work the way you think it does. Hell is basically a prison, but sometimes a soul will choose to become a demon, thus gaining themselves a bit of freedom, but is still grounded with harsh rules to follow or suffer the consequences."

He turned back to the window, "Basically, even though all of us are linked, our souls are separate entities. The realms of heaven, earth, and hell are all apart from other realities realms. We intermingle at times, but usually, we are separate."

Taking a breath, he continued, "Demon aren't all bad, it is just the way things play out. I even dated a demon once, really nice. She got sent that way because she was a prostitute, but she did it for the right reasons; to feed and care for her son. Damn near teared me up when she told me about it. But she still went there, and now she is working for initiation center for newcomers. It's not fire pits and eternal torture, but they do have special cases. Such as those that _really_ deserve to be sent to hell. You do the deed, you better pay heed."

Still grimacing from the seemingly endless pain, Harry followed with rapt attention. Finally he spoke up, "This is mind blowing, I mean, I was never really religious in the first place, but it sounds more like a checks and balances system."

"It really is somewhat. Been this way since the birth of the soul. A soul wasn't created, it just came into being. The first couple of souls set up the balance between the two places and set up a system that keeps everyone happy with the _status quo_. Of course, not everything goes as smoothly as you might imagine. There are always the greedy souls, on both sides of the fence I might add, that try to gain power unto themselves. They don't last long, really. The leaders of both heaven and hell are good friends now, but a couple thousand years ago, you would have been lucky to have kissed a girl without one smiting you in some way or another."

"So the bible isn't really applicable to how things really are?"

"Choirs of angels and demons endlessly thwarting humanity until Rapture? Not really, if you know what to look for, it's more of a history book on soul politics. Why do you think _God_ was smiting people left and right, then suddenly he is all rainbows and butterflies? It's because leaders change and everyone is different. The main rule is that we rarely get to interfere with different realities like what I'm doing. I'm only allowed to usually give you nudges in the right direction with strange happenstance. Not much, but sometimes it helps. The reason that I can actually come here corporeally is because this little feud between you and Tom Riddle can tip the balance. Tipping the balance is bad."

Harry nodded with renewed understanding, he could see the reasons without needing detailed explanations like he usually would. _'I guess my brain really is clearing up the mess it usually is.'_

Gabriel stood up and stretched letting out a loud huff of air. Straighten his black shirt, he pulled up his chair and put it down beside the bed, sat down and began to check Harry. It was a tad disconcerting for Harry to be looked at so thoroughly, even though it was essentially himself doing the looking.

It was a really weird day.

"Looks like your process is still moving along quite nicely. Already five-eleven from your previous five-six, not bad at all. Muscle tone is coming along, but you will need food here soon to compensate for all the energy that is being burnt to alter your structure. Need something to help along the adenosine triphosphate creation..."

Gabriel kept talking to himself about random needs until he heard the sharp _tak tak_ at the window. Both looked over to see Hedwig looking confused at both inhabitants of Harry's room.

"Well, I guess your owl is confused about me being here. I figure that would be the case, since she is looking for you with her senses, but also because I am technically you, it's going to give her a fit if we don't settle her down soon." Gabriel spoke this while heading over to the window while Hedwig started screeching in wide-eyed astonishment.

After opening the window, Hedwig tentatively hobbled over the ledge and much to the amusement of Harry and Gabriel began to edge around the _other _Harry to get to this dimensions Harry.

"Well, never seen her do that before," Hedwig flapped her wings once to bring her to the headboard of the bed Harry was in, "Why do you smell of butter and potatoes, Hedwig?"

Hedwig shook her head twice thoroughly and dropped a letter onto Harry's chest. Hedwig though never completely leaned back as she was taking in the rapid changes of her master and cocked her head to side in obvious bemusement.

Gabriel, while silently chuckling, went back to his chair beside the bed and addressed Hedwig, "Hedwig is it? Well, it's a pleasure to meet you, my name is Harry, but I also go by Gabriel to stave off the coming confusion. Yes, I can understand you," _Squawk!_ "No, I'm not part owl, but where I come from, we have a natural affinity to living beings."

Hedwig just shook her had once more than leaned back and started preening her feathers while keeping an eye on Harry.

"Hedwig was a little confused about me and the changes you are going through. She really is a doting mother of a bird, when it comes to you. Gave me an earful when she thought I was causing you pain."

Harry snorted and looked admiringly up at Hedwig and looked back at Gabriel, "Well, technically it is your doing, no matter if I consented to it. But yeah, you never did tell me you could communicate with animals. Why don't you tell me about yourself before we get to the letter."

His counterpart hummed for a moment and picked up the conversation once again, "I have to skim over some of the details as you might understand, but I can give you a general outlook. Before I took up with the outfit, I lived a relatively normal life of a student studying hadrons and magical technology. Basically the same as physics but with more advanced magical theory. My, our, father was an advanced guard similar to your aurors. My mother was more into the sciences herself, devoting most of her time to arithmancy theory and being a mother."

Harry smiled at the mental image of him growing up with that kind of family. From what he knew of his parents from stories told by their friends, it sounded like something they'd do.

"After I graduated second in my class at Hogwarts, I took a job at the Time-displacement Accelerator station as a researcher and later on as a deputy watcher. I basically gathered intelligence of other realities and tried to find out how our choices affect realities. Pretty heavy stuff if I got into the actual workings, but I'd probably just help you form a migraine right now. After a couple of years, I settled into a routine of work and social life. Also dated a few people, looking for the future Mrs. Potter. Can't really go into details as I can't imply causality onto this universe."

Harry just chuckled and winced once more when he felt his body twinge with pain. "Sounds like a good life, but how did you get into your job now?"

"I'd like to be able to tell you, but like I said, causality and all that jazz. Can't directly influence individual decisions. Maybe in the future we can discuss it, but right now, I'll _literally _unable to tell you."

Having nodded at the response, Harry once more looked at the letter on his chest. The letter had slid down a bit to rest against the hollow of his neck due to his body's rapid growth.

"Gabriel, what should I tell my friends? I mean, they will notice the differences in my body, not just the way my mind works. Especially Hermione; when that woman gets a scent of something off-kilter she is like a ruddy bloodhound."

Chuckling, Gabriel stood up and picked up the letter on Harry's chest and tapped it against his leg while thinking of what to do in this situation.

"Well, like I said before, no ones the same when it comes to this particular gift. We will see where you are in a week's time, then go from there. But Hermione...she is a special case. Like you said, she'll notice right away when she see's you that something is off. But, it's best to leave the truth out of it for awhile until you actually establish your trust to your friends and such. Not saying that you shouldn't trust them, just that the truth will be a hard pill to swallow. Trust me."

Feeling the swell of hopeful trust through their bond, Harry nodded with understanding.

"Alright, I understand that. Let's read that letter, I'm dying to see what she needed all of a sudden. She doesn't usually write until I write her."

Gabriel winked salaciously and stated, "Anxious little codger ain't ya? You do understand, with your new outlook and intellect might alter your feelings of her right? I'm not saying that they will, just saying that it's possible. Anyways, want me to read it to you or do you want to read it yourself?"

Thinking for a moment, he replied, "You go ahead and read it, any movement right now hurts like hell. Just read out loud, if you would."

Taking the notepad paper out of the business envelope, Gabriel unfolded it and read, "Dear Harry, I was just sitting down for lunch and would you believe it, Hedwig was outside my window fishing for a letter! That owl is such a clever girl! Anyways, I just wanted to tell you that I don't blame you for what happened in the Department of Mystery's," Harry winced, clearly not from the pain, "and for Sirius' death. I'm so sorry for what happened and I promise you that being your friend is the best thing that has ever happened in my life. Being with you on our adventures gives me the feeling that I'm actually making a difference, and you should realize that you might not think yourself a hero, but you really are. You are so much more than those fairytale heroes on white steeds and gleaming armor. You are a man who is doing what he feels is right. Not Harry Potter, The-Boy-Who-Lived, but Harry Potter, my best friend and fighter for what is right."

"Wow." That was all Harry could utter after hearing that touching piece. _'She really is a remarkable woman.'_

"That's not all, Harry. Here, let me finish it up," coughing the clear his throat, "Now, enough with me flattering you. How are you doing? Don't you dare reply, "I'm fine", or I'm going to hex your hair off. You can tell me anything, Harry. Anything at all. But besides all that, have you noticed Ron acting weird all of a sudden? He's been sending me letters about nothing at all and it is starting to worry me. Do you think the brains from the brain room might of done more than we were told? Oh, before I forget, I noticed that we live decently close and I was wondering if you'd enjoy a visit soon? Reply soon if you'd like a visit, because I can't devote all my time to worrying about the illustrious Harry Potter!"

Harry couldn't hold back the snort that escaped him at that short quip. _'Trust Hermione to make me laugh at the strangest moments.'_

"Write soon, Hermione. Well, it looks like you might have a visit from your favorite girl in the near future! We can see how you are at the end of the week and she can probably visit then. I'd rather you didn't bring me up at that point, I want you guys to spend time together. Don't bring up something that will get her intellectually curious because you two deserve some peace that comes with friendship."

"Alright, sounds about right. We can just talk about things as usual and-"

Gabriel cut him off with a mock stern look, "Harry, if you want Hermione to become interested in you more, if she isn't already, why don't you take her out and watch a movie or something? Go be a teenager for once!"

Properly chastised, Harry just chuckled, "Sorry, Gabe, it's not like I've ever done this before. She's my friend, I don't want to ruin that with her if my advances are unwarranted."

Gabriel just looked at Harry like he grew another head.

"Why are you looking at me like that?"

"Because I never realized how much of an idiot I can be at times."

"Oi," exclaimed Harry in indignation. Again.

"Well, I'm not saying take her to the movies and try to snog her senseless! I'm just saying go out and have fun, as a friend. And if she seems to be accepting of things, just go with our wonderful instincts. You can have a four digit IQ but when it comes to women, we can be a bit thick. I'll give you that."

Harry turned his head away stiffly and scoffed, "It's not my fault I don't know what to do. I never got any advice about these sorts of things! I can think of a hundred things I'd like to go do, but when it comes to initiating romantic intentions, my brain comes up with a blank. I'll just go with my instincts, indeed!"

Laughingly, surprisingly Hedwig hooted in amusement, Gabriel leaned back in the desk chair.

"Look Harry, I am just saying that when it comes to it, you two are best friends. It shouldn't be awkward. It'll come naturally, trust me."

Sighing, Harry turned his head back to stare at the ceiling and lifted his eyes to look at Hedwig, "You are definitely not helping matters. Playing matchmaker! Worse than Molly, I swear."

Hedwig just rolled her large amber eyes and took off to land back in her cage to snack on her treats.

"Hedwig knows you better than yourself. She really is an intelligent friend. Familiars are wonderful companions. Right, well, I'm going to pop off to get some food for you and myself. Every time I visit a different universe, I always go to the fish and chips stand in downtown London. Best thing since the wheel, let me tell you. You lay there and think of what you want to write Hermione and we'll reply once I get back."

Standing back up, Gabriel trotted over to Hedwig's cage and scratched her right under the beak and cooed, "Who's a smart owl, that's right, you are!"

Turning his head back to Harry, he winked right before a slight gust of wind seemed to spawn from no where. Harry watched as Gabriel was seemingly blown away out the window.

Harry looked back at Hedwig, "Traitor, taking a liking to the guy who picks on your own companion!"

Hedwig just preened at the slight and hooted in amusement once more.

"I hate you."


	4. Chapter 4: Coincidental entanglements

**A/N: **Hey, what do you know? It's a new chapter in record time. This is whopping 10k+ chapter to help satiate your fanfiction fix. I looked the other day and I noticed all the new followers and views and it literally blew me away. It really helps knowing that people are looking forward to this story. Before we get to the nitty gritty, I'd like to once again request reviews so I could get better feedback on this story. I'm not fishing for compliments, I'm actually looking for suggestive criticism for me to better this story with. Until next time.

**A/N-2: **Sorry about the chapter drop and re-upload. I posted it very early in the morning and I missed a ton of mistake near the end of it. Thanks to atokkota for pointing out my juvenile mistake of mixing the cars up. Cheers.

_Standard disclaimers apply_

**Coincidental entanglement **

Hermione was pacing. She didn't know why she was pacing, but it felt like the thing to do at the time.

She just received the return letter from Harry and something just seemed...off with its contents.

Gone was the confusing jumble of words she had come to expect from him. This letter though, was careful and meticulous. It was as if, to her, Harry was hiding something.

"What are you up to Harry..."

Feeling like she created enough of a divot into the hardwood paneling of the backyard patio, she returned to her lounge chair to think while overlooking the shady Willow trees carpeting her backyard.

Lost in thought, she didn't notice her parents return from their practice, nor her mother's voice calling out to her.

"Hermione!"

Giving a slight jump, she looked at her mother's face in the patio sliding doors. Her mother always had a calming nature about her, and this time was no different.

Hermione waved over at her mom, silently beckoning her towards her spot on the chair. Sliding the door behind her closed, Amelia Granger walked over to the twin lounge chair and sat sideways on it to face her daughter.

"What wrong, luv? You looked miles away," cut straight to the point. Just like her daughter.

"Oh...nothing really, mum. It's just I got a letter back from Harry today and something just seemed different about it. More focused. It's confusing and worrying."

Sitting up to face her mother, she fiddled with her fingers and turned her head to look back over at the Willow bellowing with the slight wind.

Amelia pressed on, "Well I never really talked with Harry before, even though I feel like I already know him from what you tell me," she placed her gentle hand on her Hermione's knee and squeezed lightly, "care to elaborate to a daft mother?"

Hermione gave a slight chuckle at her mother's little inside joke, it already brightened her mood.

"Well, this past year, some things have happened to Harry. My best friend lost a godfather, one of his only connections to his parent's. He had hoped that one day, they'd live together and become the family he never had."

Amelia gasped slightly at the news. She knew Harry didn't have the best childhood from what her daughter has told her over the years, and this would certainly not help him. She wanted to help her daughters friend.

"Do you think he would like some company? Why don't you invite him over for dinner sometime to help take some pressure off the poor boy."

Hermione sighed and looked back into her mothers soft cinnamon eyes, "I sent him a letter with his owl about visiting him soon. He replied saying that he was working on something, but would be willing to in about a week," pausing to take a breath she continued, "but that's just the thing, I never knew him to take up independent projects. I just hope he isn't planning on doing anything drastic and dangerous..."

Her mother looked back into her daughters eyes, so much like her own, and saw the genuine concern for her friend.

"Dear, some people grieve in different ways. Harry's never really lost someone that he knew personally, so you wouldn't really know what he would do to alleviate that pain. The best you can do is to be there for him when needs an ear or a talking to."

While pondering her mothers words, her mother continued, "When you go see him, try to keep him from the subject for now. Distract him from the pain, that's what your father did for me when my mother passed and its something I'll always be gracious for. Be a friend for Harry, and he will pull through. He is a strong boy from what you tell me, but still, everyone has their limits."

Giving a thankful smile, Hermione stood as her mother did so.

"Hermione, I know you care for him a great deal. But don't push him on this to far. Just be there for him." After saying this, Amelia pulled her daughter into a hug then backed off a bit, "Now then, we are going out to dinner tonight so why don't you go up to your room and get cleaned up a bit. Come back down when you're ready."

Cracking an easy smile, Hermione did as she was told and leisurely walked into the house to see her father twirling the same fountain pen she used earlier while reading some paperwork.

"Hey dad, how was work today?"

Looking up from his work, her father smiled broadly and stood up. Walking over to her, he picked her up in a hug which caused Hermione to giggle softly at her fathers antics.

"It's was fine, my beautiful daughter," placing her back on her feet, "just another slow day for a lowly dentist," giving a wink to her daughter.

Hermione chuckled a bit and asked, "Well I heard we are going out to eat, casual or formal?"

"Casual, luv. Just going to have a fun night of dinner and a movie. Some good ones came out this year, comedy or history film?"

Hermione hummed for a second and stated, "I'd have to say history. Don't really care for the British comedy genre. Oh yes, before I forget, is it okay if I visit Harry sometime next week? If not, I can invite him here to meet you. Whatever works best for you, dad."

Of course, she ended this with her patented puppy dog eyes. Always a sure thing against her father.

Shaking his head with a chuckle, "I don't see why not, why don't you bring him over here first though. I'd like to meet the young man who has captured my daughters attention for the past five years."

Mortified and wide-eyed, Hermione stated, "It's not like that, Dad! I would just like to seem him because this year some bad things happened towards Harry. He needs a friend, and I want to help him with it."

Cleomenes Granger smiled slightly and nodded, "Sorry hun, just teasing you a bit. I'd still like to meet young Harry though. Bring him over and you two can go to the cinema or something afterward."

Seeing his daughters face light up after that was all he needed to know that he made the right choice.

"Oh dad, thank you, thank you, thank you!"

Hermione bounded up the stairs to her room to get ready for dinner.

Amelia walked in and hugged Cleomenes from behind, "You did the right thing, Cleo. They both need this."

Cleo just turned around to face his wife, and sighed softly. He spoke up after basking in his wife's arms for a bit, "I know, luv. I just want Hermione growing up _too _quickly. She's at that age and it's my fatherly duty to harass any male in her presence," he pouted a bit after that.

Hermione's mother laughed softly and looked up into Cleo's dark blue eyes, "Not this one, dear. He lost someone not to long ago. As much as I would enjoy laughing seeing him flustered, he doesn't need that right now. Maybe at a later date though," finishing it off with a mischievous wink.

Grinning, Cleomenes finished the topic with, "I knew there was a reason I married you!"

"Well I didn't marry you for your families pension for naming their children after Shakespeare characters."

The mischief never left her eyes.

Leaning down, Cleo said, "Well care to elaborate why you did marry me?"

Standing on her toes to whisper in his ear, the only sound was hushed words.

Cleo gave a broad smile, "Yep, that sounds about right."

Laughingly, Amelia backed up swatted her husbands shoulder and gave a peck on the lips.

"Wanker."

Cleo gave a bark of laughter and pulled Amelia back into his arms and kissed her soundly, "Your wanker."

Amelia winked, "You bet you are."

Hearing their daughter's laughter from the stairs, they turned their heads to look at her.

"You two still act like you are in uni'!"

Cleo gave another laugh, "Well, it certainly keeps us on our toes. Ready to go, luv?"

Smiling, Hermione nodded and walked over to hug her parents, "I love you both so much."

Her parents looked down and smiled while hugging her to them, her mother answered, "We love you too, sweetie."

Her father squeezed her daughter's side for a quick tickle, "Enough mushy talk, let's get to restaurant. I'm famished!"

Shaking her head, Hermione grabbed both her mothers right hand and her fathers left and pulled them towards the door.

* * *

Harry was still laying on the bed when Gabriel returned, arms laden with bags of only he knew. Just like when he left, he returned in a gust of wind from the window.

"Hey there, Harry. You still sore?"

"Bugger off."

Gabriel smiled widely and set the bags down on the desk and moved over to the chair that was still beside the bed.

"Well, I got the goods. They should help you with the nutrients you need. Sorry, no processed or chemically altered foods," seeing Harry's grimace, "all natural, trust me, you will be thanking me later."

Harry looked over at the bags, his mind rationalizing what could be in them before he could stop himself. His eyes took in the weight distributing among the bags and the odd lumps here and there in the bags.

"Well, for some reason, I can give you a near accurate guess for whats in those bags. Is that normal?"

Gabriel smiled broadened once more, "Well, seeing as I've not done this to another version of us, I can't really say if it is. But, it looks like your brain is overclocking itself. That's a good thing, it's going to access all of it's facilities now. You should starting being more rational with your thinking, and your eyes will help analyze what you set your brain to."

Sitting down on the chair, he began to squeeze Harry's arms and legs to check for muscle tone, "Well it looks like your body is growing at a balanced pace."

Harry watched him with a calculating gaze, "So how tall am I now? The soreness I was feeling in my bones has finally stopped aching so much."

Gabriel tapped his chin, then sat back and waved his right hand with a quick flip and a measuring tape materialized in the air floating to his right. Snatching it out of the air, Gabriel stretched it out beside Harry.

"Let's see here," he put the tip of the tape near his head and pulled down the metallic end towards Harry's soles, "ah, it says here roughly six foot, four inches. Wow, big change huh?"

With wide-eyes, Harry just nodded slightly and laid his bead back down on the pillow. Hedwig was once more looking down on him with concerned amber eyes.

"Gabriel, how will I explain this to Hermione? And everyone else, Dumbledore will especially want to know what happened."

Leaning back in his chair, Gabriel flicked the tape measure over his right should and it dematerialized before it was a foot away. He clasped his hands together on his stomach and replied, "Well, you can't just say it was magic," here Harry gave a stifled chuckle, " I guess you can just say it was a rough week of growth spurts. Hermione won't buy it, of course, but everyone else will go along with it. Providing they don't pop up unexpectedly. With Hermione you will have to give a little bit more."

"What do you think I should say?"

Gabriel was still lounging in the chair with his hands over his stomach when he sat up slightly, "I guess you can just tell her it was magic of a sort. Say you were focusing on a project that would help yourself out physically. That should work. Just say it was a type of meditation of focusing your magic through your body that would cleanse out problems. Your height being one of them. Everything else is easily played off."

Harry nodded and sighed, "I hate lying to her, it just feels wrong."

"I know, Harry, but it's for the best right now. You can relate her the truth later but for now it's best she doesn't know."

Harry just nodded once more before starring once more up at the ceiling, trying to distract his now frenetic brain. It was causing a massive headache.

"Still doesn't make it me feel any better about it, but I understand. Anyways, so what's on our agenda for the rest of the week?"

Gabriel leaned back once more, "We will need to work on your coordination with your body, you will be disoriented for awhile due to your new height and weight. It won't take long though with your mind being able to adapt quicker to the changes. After that, we will work on a course of magic of your choosing that will help you. You should thank me again for being so awesome."

Harry snorted and sarcastically stated in a monotone voice, "Thank you, Gabriel."

"Hey now, where did all the enthusiasm go!"

"It left with your humor."

"Touche."

With a grin, Gabriel stood up and walked to the head of the bed to stroke Hedwig while he talked.

"Besides that, we need to go on a little road trip. Get you out to see what the world really is like, but we will do that after Hermione visits you. Don't want to her to blow her top."

"Road trip? Where are we going to go? And how will go without detection, surely an Order member will notice me missing?"

Gabriel chuckled, "Leave that to me, the all-powerful guardian angel! Alright, alright, you don't have to scowl so much, your face may get stuck that way. Well, I will set up a double for you that will still be detectable as you. I will make the Dursley's perception of it seem like the genuine article."

Harry looked up a bit to look into Gabriel's eye, "You can do that? What will my double be?"

"A homunculus," he deadpanned.

Harry coughed violently trying to dislodge the spit that was choking him. He was shocked to say the least.

"What do you mean a homunculus! That's dark magic!"

Gabriel rolled his eyes, "It isn't _dark_ magic," he wiggled his fingers out in front of him sarcastically at the word 'dark', "it's gray magic. The only reason people call it dark is because it uses some blood to copy the body of the intended original. It's good for living wards and soul transplants. Hasn't been done in the last couple thousand years, but there you go. It's all about intentions."

Harry, still skeptical about this, narrowed his eyes at his guardian, "Well, we can't just leave it here, from what I know of them, they can't really be left alone to fend for themselves."

"Well it's true that it will be created with a blank slate for a mind and no soul, but I will program its mind with some of your personality and give it a rundown of motor skills it will need. Like walking, eating, going to the loo and the like. Don't worry, I've done it before and I know it works."

Sighing, Harry just relaxed once more on his pillow and came to terms that he didn't really know much of anything. _'I need to remedy that.'_

As if he could read Harry's mind, which he probably could, Gabriel elaborated, "I know this is coming at you really fast, but don't worry, I'll try to help you get your knowledge up to speed."

Harry smirked and continued his exploration of the ceiling. Gabriel walked over to the bags and began to empty them, he paused after the first bag was unloaded and looked over at the empty corner to the left of the window.

"You aren't using that corner, are you?" He pointed to the corner in question and raised an eyebrow at Harry.

Curious about his intention of said corner were, Harry just shook his head while his eyes scanned the corner.

Gabriel smirked and waved his right arm in the general direction of the corner and a square started to materialize before them. Harry's eyebrows rose to his hairline while his jaw dropped slightly. The square in question was roughly six feet tall and three feet in width. The square began to take on a metallic sheen while the top two feet was somehow dissected with a line from the remaining four was left alone.

Harry's guest just looked back at Harry and announced with a phony announcers voice, "Congratulations! You are now the proud owner of a new refrigerator." Laughing softly at the shocked look on his charge's face, he turned back to unloading the bags.

"Er, Gabriel, how are you doing that? It's similar to conjuration but it's different somehow."

"I was wondering when you would ask, it's not actually apart of any magic that you study at school. With me, I work for the angels and we are imbued with the knowledge of particle manipulation. Kind of like magic, but at the same time, it's not. We can take from nothing and create anything. The magic you are thinking of takes energy. A lot of energy. You use static energy, from the surrounding entropy, and force a creation of material."

"Is it bad that that kind of made sense?"

Chuckling, Gabriel continued, "No, it's actually a good thing, it means you are able to adapt new information to information you already now. Humans have this skill already, you are just more attuned to using it now."

Gabriel continued unloading the bags to the sound of rustling from the bags and the low whine of the new refrigerator. There was also occasional soft concerned hoot from Hedwig, who was still mothering over Harry from his bed's headboard.

"Gabriel, I'm bored. My head is starting to kill me from starring at the ceiling."

Gabriel just looked over at him from where he was loading the supplies into the refrigerator, "What do you want me to do about it? I can rub my belly and pat my head at the same time, if you'd like?"

The sarcasm did _not _go unnoticed by Harry.

"Ha, ha, ha. Why don't you tell me my choices for what I will be learning. I will admit, I am a tad curious."

The guardian's hand with a container of celery halted for a second before continuing it's course to the lowest set shelf in the fridge. Gabriel pulled back to sit on his haunches and ran his left hand through his hair. It was a eerily familiar habit to Harry.

"Well. There are different branches of magic from the ones you know of," Gabriel turned fully to Harry now, "Alchemy is one branch that is highly useful, but you can pick that up on your own time. But offensive and defensive alchemy I can teach you as it would be hard to come by any information regarding it.

Standing up to retrieve another couple of bags from the desk, "There is blood magic, which focuses on augmentation of the bodies functions. Not really going to be useful to you as your body can take of itself handily. Except within the deeper ritual sets, you can boost speed, strength and stamina. Seeing as you don't need to worry about the stamina, the other two would be easy enough to handle."

"I thought blood magic was focused on wards and harmful rituals? I'm not fishing for insults about my lack of knowledge, I am just curious about the subject; it sounds promising."

"It is a interesting subject," Gabriel sat down once more with his legs spread wide, "but like I said, it isn't very practical with your advanced body now. Still something you might like to study at a later date. Hm, let's see. I could suggest sonancy magic. Very nifty magic if you ask me."

Harry turned his head towards Gabriel and asked, "Sonancy...why does that sound familiar?"

"It is another word for sound. Sonancy magic is old magic, it hasn't been used for a very, _very _long time. Like the time of Atlantis long. It's a shame really, it really was a beautiful craft."

Interest peaked, Harry urged, "Can I see an example of it, if that is alright?"

"Sure, I'll just show you some simple elemental summoning." After that he lifted his right hand, palm up, so it was level with his face. Then Gabriel did something that dumbfounded Harry. He whistled.

But the whistle was a low pitched warble compared to what you might hear from a catchy tune someone would expose on their morning routines. In fact, it was different in the fact that it was a heart-achingly beautiful noise. Even though it was one continuous stream of a low-pitched noise, it was as a symphony orchestra sprung into existence in Harry's tiny bedroom and began playing.

While the whistle itself was continuing, Harry smelt the distinct scent of ozone and water begin to fill the room. He looked at Gabriel hand when he noticed something catch his eye. Strand of air seemed to be _stretching _towards a focal point above his palm. It was odd looking to say the least.

The stretching seemed to be congregating continuously and seemed to be rounding out from the point the strands met. At first it was shimmering point like a star in a starry night when sky was clear enough to see. Then it grew. It grew until it was the size of a golf ball and stopped when Gabriel cut off the haunting whistle.

"And that is Sonancy basically."

Harry knew what he wanted to learn at that exact moment.

Gabriel smirked at Harry's face, seeing the awe in his eyes.

"Gabriel – that was amazing. I mean, it's basically a more difficult way of conjuring water, but still it was...amazing!" He was smiling ear to ear while eying the floating ball of shimmering clear water.

"Actually, it's not the same as what you are thinking. It's not like a _aguamenti _spell where you are basically conjuring water. What I did was actually create water from the hydrogen and oxygen molecules that are in the air right now. That in itself is notable because unlike conjuration, it won't lose it's existence due to be conjured. It is permanent unless I banish it. Plus, with Sonancy I am able to manipulate the water itself due to the mental connection I created with my whistle."

Pausing for breath, "I established a harmony with the water itself, the magic that was used to forge the hydrogen bonds is still there bonding the atoms. So basically, this is equally magical as it is water. With that magic I can change its form," the water changed into the shape of a what a flickering flame would look like if it were water, "and also change it's purpose," the water then misted above his hand and began to trickle down to the floor.

"It is a very handy branch of magic, especially with the elements. It has other uses such as animation and conjurations. I prefer it when I decide to just use magic for a decade or so when I get bored of the whole creating things from nothing."

Harry shook his head to clear his focus from pondering about the fundamentals of Sonancy and back to the conversation, "I have to learn this. This is definitely what I want to learn."

Nodding like he was expecting that choice, Gabriel returned to placing objects into the refrigerator. Once he was finished, he stood up and brushed off his backside from the dust it accumulated and started to walk back over to Harry.

Sitting down with a huff of air, he relaxed once more. "Harry, I am not going to try and dissuade you from learning it, but I have to let you know that it is a very taxing branch of magic. With your focus it should be easy to create the connections between you and the magic but the hard part is carrying a tune for so long.

"I am not sure you noticed, but I held that whistle for close to a minute. Without the technique you could probably hold a note for close to twenty seconds. I was able to do so because the technique teaches you to simultaneously summon air into your lungs while you are continuously exhaling the oxygen for the whistle. Like I said, it is very troublesome."

Harry however shook his head in response, "That doesn't matter, I want – no – I _need _ to learn this. It just clicks with me, if that makes sense. I feel drawn towards it."

Giving a chuckle, Gabriel leaned over and patted Harry's shoulder, "Easy lover boy, don't go waxing poetic on my account. I will teach you, I just had to let you know before we got started in a couple days."

Smiling, Harry laid his head back down on the pillow and looked at the ceiling, for once, his mind not on the ceilings minutiae details but on this prospective new magic.

"Now that we got that covered," Gabriel back down on the chair and started examining him again, "I think it is time to start on your assimilation of your body. Try to sit up without my help."

Ignoring the dull ache in his head, Harry slowly flexed his core muscles to try and bring his top half vertical. Ever so slowly, he raised his torso up and realized quickly that his head was higher than it usually was. Then the vertigo hit and he quickly shut his eyes to keep the spinning sensation to a minimum.

"Yeah, the vertigo will dissipate quickly. I am actually glad that you were able to use the correct amount of strength to raise yourself. I would of figured it would have taken a few minutes to get the adaption process down. It looks like this will go quicker than expected."

Harry shook his head after the vertigo left and slowly opened his eyes. The focus he was paying to each item across from him was staggering. The wall had a coat rack on it that held his gray sweatshirt and a emerald green hooded jacket that Hermione gifted him last Christmas. He saw all the scratches and the reasons that caused them. The little tears on the cuffs on the jacket from where he would pull at the loose strings from being nervous were apparent to his now sharp mind.

His breathing quickened as he assimilated more and more information around him. _'It's too much,' _Harry thought,_ 'too much too soon.'_

"Gabriel, it's too much. I can't stop taking in details around me. I see everything, and it's too much," his breathing picked up in pace once more until it was at the stage of a panic attack.

Gabriel leaned over to steady his torso from falling forward or backwards and spoke calmly, "Breath Harry, breath slowly. Focus your mind; you are in control of it, not the other way around. Focus on what you want it to do. Calm your mind."

Feeling the sturdy hands on his chest and back, Harry was able to slow his fast breathing to dampen his raging mind. He pushed all inconsequential thought to the side and focused on nothingness. He blanketed himself with it, drew comfort from the nothing he formed in his mind. He could feel his heart-rate slow to a dull thump in his chest and his emotions dampen until they were all neutral. It was a heady feeling.

Realizing what Harry was doing, Gabriel smirked and continued to ground Harry with his hands and words. "Good Harry, control you emotions. You are your own master. Control your body."

After a few minutes past with a blank faced Harry starring at the coat rack. Gabriel thought it was time to further the experience.

"Alright, Harry. Now I want you to turn and try to stand. Don't worry, I'll be right here to steady you."

Breathing deeply once more, Harry slowly used his elongated legs to turn his body towards the side so he was now facing the window. He used his lengthened arms to grip the side of the bed and slowly raised himself into a standing position.

He was tall. It was weird, Harry thought, to be able to look around his room and be able to recognize everything, but not remember the vantage point he was now looking at.

"This height thing is going to take a while to get used to."

Laughing lightly, Gabriel slowly removed his hands from Harry's torso and stepped back.

"Yeah, but you'll get used to it none the less. Now, try walking a few paces to the window. I want you to breath and take in everything from the window while keeping your mind calm."

With a quick nod, Harry raised his left leg wobbly and set it down in front of him. He could now understand fully what Gabriel meant by getting used to his new body. It was unbalanced from what he was used to. He raised his arm to steady himself by clasping on Gabriel's shoulder while he took another step with his right.

Soon enough, Harry finished the short trek to window and leaned heavily against it. The fatigue was apparent as his legs felt like jelly while standing there.

Knowing what Harry's stature was implying, Gabriel alluded, "The fatigue will wear off, it's just the oxygenation of your blood flow is still adapting to the new limb proportions. But you are doing remarkably well, I've not known a case that has progressed this fast. Usually you would be racked with aches for a day or two, enough to keep you bedridden."

"Well, I always was a quick learner. Practical is my area of expertise, Hermione is the theoretical one. Alright, on to the next part..."

Facing the window, he arched his back to stick his head out the window. With a pause, he settled his emotions and thoughts down once more, and inhaled deeply. He could almost taste the scent of the neighborhood. The wet smell of soil and cement. The cooking dinners of the surrounding families. Freshly mowed grass mixed in with the petrichor of the recent rain assaulted his senses.

"Wow," Harry breathed with an exhale.

"Tell me what you smell. Be descriptive."

"I smell the rain on the ground. The chicken the family next door is making. Fresh grass. The faint scent of petrol in the air. Rubber from over used brake pads..."

"Good, now I want you to open your eyes and tell me what you see. Try to find things you never noticed before."

Opening his eyes, Harry took a quick sweep of the immediate area. "I see the slight brake skid from where the driver of number two privet drive had to stop suddenly. A slight dark stain to the left of the tracks suggest a spill of some sort. Most likely coffee instead of tea due to the darker nature of the stain.

"I see the clouds moving towards the east suggesting the rain we had was from the Atlantic. I can deduce that due to the slight trimmings done to the house across the street's rose bushes, he or she stopped suddenly due to the rain. A slight dent in the light pole down the street was made from a small automobile. Probably a small Honda due to the creases in the pole, it has a slight etched figure with the logo. It was done a couple weeks ago, the rust has barely formed-"

Gabriel cut him off to stop the tangent he was on, "Good, good. Come back to your desk and sit down and relax."

Shaking to clear his head once more, Harry shakily went to the wooden chair in front of the desk and sat with a slight waft of air.

Harry looked up at Gabriel while he moved in front of Harry and formed a chair before he sat. Gabriel looked into Harry's eye while he spoke, "It looks like the hemispheres of your brain are increasing productivity of rational thought. All you will have to work on is to keep your focus on not getting too caught up in thoughts like you were doing with the light post."

With a nod, Harry replied, "Yeah, I could tell I was being entirely to thorough with that. It was just spilling out of my mouth as quickly as I recognized something. What I don't understand, yet, is how I am able to see all those details and relate them to the knowledge I have already."

"Well, as I said before, all human minds do it. The use previous experience to relate current events to make things make sense. Yours is just a more rational approach to it. You fit all the pieces together like a puzzle with alarming accuracy. We'll have to work on it, to keep you from getting _too_ caught up in it."

"Alright, now care to explain why I feel...neutral? I don't know how else to explain it."

"When I first told you about this gift, I said you would it would be difficult in regards to your emotions. You will still be empathetic to certain things, but you will have a harder time expressing them. You just have to learn how to use them again with your new outlook on things.

"You won't turn into some sociopath with no morality. You'll still be Harry, but more...relaxed. That's a good way to think of it. You'll be able to keep face when the adrenaline hits and able to make good decisions instead of rash ones."

Harry hung his head slightly, guilt spreading into his blank mind. "That would of came in handy when I fell for Voldemort's trap..."

He flinched harshly when Gabriel leaned over and flicked him on the nose. Hard.

"What the hell was that for!"

"That was for quilt tripping yourself. You know you aren't solely responsible for what happened. A little fool hardy maybe, but it was with the best intentions. You need to come to grips with the fact that people make mistakes, even the smart people. You think Hermione's never made a mistake?" Harry replied with a negative shake, "See, you don't see her beating herself up over every single fault she has made. She may be a tad insecure about herself, but we all start out that way. You push that event and the guilt that came with it to the side and figure out how you can better yourself."

Understanding what Gabriel was saying, Harry could only nod, but with his eyes firmly meeting the emerald eyes of his counterpart.

Breaking eye contact, Gabriel stood with an easy smile and walked over to the new refrigerator and pulled it open. Scanning it for a quick second, he reached in and pulled out a small frozen extra lean steak and a bag of miniature broccoli from the top shelf. Harry curiously watched him, silently wondering how he would go about preparing the meal. Gabriel set the items down on top of the desk behind him and proceeded to wave his hand in between the two items.

Harry cracked a smug grin, realizing what Gabriel was doing when he waved his hand. Knowing what was about to appear, he walked up to the adjacent side of the desk and studiously watched the magic at work; he wanted to know if he could replicate it somehow.

A simple china dish materialized between the steak and broccoli and Gabriel unwrapped the steak to place it on the plate with an almost silent 'clak'. Dumping a healthy portion of broccoli next to the steak, he returned the bag to the fridge and banished the styrofoam carrier of the steak.

Harry glanced over at Gabriel, not knowing how he was to cook the meal. "I'm not eating that frozen, am I?"

With a snort, Gabriel hovered his hands over the plate. Harry noticed a silver nondescript ring on his middle finger. Placing it out of his mind for now, Harry looked back to see what his guest was doing with the non-edible food. He _really _didn't want to eat frozen food.

Gabriel clenched his hands and then with a slight push towards the plate he unclenched them. The steak thawed and started to steam slightly while the meat browned with the scent of cooked meat wafted into Harry's nose. The broccoli seemed to thaw and moisturize with a quick puff of steam. With the meal seemingly done, Harry's stomach let out a low rumble that probably only Harry heard.

"Done. Simple, yet highly nutritious. Also pretty damn tasty," Gabriel raised his right hand quickly to halt the coming question, "before you ask, I prepared it with a bit of personalized magic I created a few years ago. I basically hyper-accelerated the atoms around both foods while adding a little bit of water from the surrounding air. The atoms, moving at such speeds, created tremendous heat but localized to the food only. It is also relatively instantaneous so that is why it went so quickly.

He chuckled and leaned against the sill of the window to face Harry. "The first couple of times when I tried to do that, I actually caught a kitchen on fire. You just have to practice. A lot."

Harry was stuck in between learning more about this magic and jumping the delicious smelling food before him.

It was an easy decision.

He plopped down on the chair and scooted it forward while Gabriel flicked his index finger towards the table where a fork and knife spawned into existence.

Harry stopped for a second and looked up into Gabriel's face with an amused look, "I really wish I could do that, it's really unfair to just snap your fingers, and _blimey_, you materialize whatever you need."

While Harry picked up the utensils and dug into the meal with gusto, Gabriel took off his black classic Armani one button jacket and flung it to the coat rack by the door. Unsurprisingly to Harry, it latched perfectly to the rack. Gabriel then sat down across from Harry in his hastily created chair and leaned over to bring up a small brown bag. Seeing his raised eyebrow, Gabriel dumped the contents onto the desk with a giddy grin.

"Nothing like British fish and chip, eh?"

Giving a snort, Harry returned to polish off his quickly diminishing meal.

Both similar looking men continued to eat in silence until Harry sat back and patted his stomach fondly. "Gods, that was delicious. They don't serve _that _at Hogwarts. It's a miracle that all wizards aren't overweight with all the grease they digest."

"Actually," Gabriel swallowed the bit of cod in his mouth, "the reason most magicals are thin is because they burn more energy that normal humans with their ability to wield magic. Magicals radiate magic constantly, so they need a flow of food to keep healthy. They just don't really care about what they eat, really." He popped a chip into his mouth that dunked thoroughly into the ketchup.

"Then why do I need to eat nutritious foods, while they don't? I'm not complaining, mind you, I'm just curious."

Gabriel chewed slowly then swallowed. "Well, first off, eating healthier does keep your body fit athletically compared to the grease lined capillaries of the lazy, yet thin, average magical person. You take care of your body, your body takes care of you. Especially in your case, you are going to burn off roughly...three times the amount of energy that a normal person would."

"Gotcha. But what about you, why do you get to stuff your face with greasy goodness and I don't?"

"I never said you had to give it up permanently. You can have the occasional quick meal on the go, but it can't become a primary factor in your meals. Me on the other hand, I am built differently than you. I got the taste buds to savor the goods but my body just converts the food into energy when it reaches my stomach."

"But what about...er, going to the bathroom and such. You digest food don't you?"

"If I want to, like when I take vacations or such I like to go completely human. When I'm working a case, I just stick to what I was given."

Harry nodded and stood up to stretch. With his arms above his head and back arched, his too small shirt rode up his stomach and exposed his lower ribs. His finger tips were also scratching the low ceiling. "This is going to take a bit to get used to."

Gabriel watched the whole stretch to make sure that he didn't hurt himself prematurely, and gave a laugh when the shirt slid up then back down to hang above his naval. "Well if I had any quid, I'd give you a pound or two for the belly dance," he gave an exaggerated wink and returned to his last remaining potato pieces.

"I'd rather you keep your eyes to yourself, thanks." Of course, the snarky reply lost effectiveness with the blush creeping up his neck.

"Oh sit down before you hurt yourself. I'm sure my wife will avenge your virtue if I decide to take advantage of your young nubile body."

Harry plopped down onto the chair and stretched his legs out towards the bed while he leaned against the wall. He was really enjoying this whole stretching but it constantly felt like he needed to do it. _'I feel like Crookshanks probably does when he is in a patch of sun.'_

Hearing the crunching of crumpling paper, Harry turned his head to look at easy-going friend. He blew a quick huff of breath to push back the bangs of his hair that fell into his face. _'Wait...when did my hair grow?'_

"Gabriel, why is my hair long? I distinctly remember it being short the last time I checked. Which was last night."

Gabriel banished the trademark fish and chips paper and leaned back in the chair. He also patted his stomach, which to Harry meant that they shared more than similar looks. They shared table manners as well.

"Gabriel?"

"Huh?" Snapping out of his post-meal splendor, he refocused on Harry, "Ah yes, well, your body grew up. It had to mature to the age it would be optimal at and while doing so, it also grew hair in funny places. You'll need to start shaving, the mop on your head you call hair, you can do whatever you wish to it."

"Interesting, never shaved before."

"Trust me on this as well, keep a shaved face. Getting facial hair snagged on something hurts something fierce. Plus it keeps you looking dashing. Always a plus, that one."

Harry actually gave a quick belt of laughter to that. "You wound me, now should I cut my hair or what? It is getting annoying."

Gabriel tilted his head to side while examining the person opposite to him, "I'd suggest pulling it back maybe. Only downside to long hair is people can yank on it, that's always a sure way to put a stop to a good time. Just fiddle with it, I guess. And don't copy me, there is only one of me out there!"

His reply only gained a stoic stare back at him.

"Oh fine, ruin my fun! Just cut the damn hair, I don't really care. Try to keep it shorter than your girlfriend's though, that's just awkward."

"Gabriel, shut up while your still ahead."

Gabriel gave a dignified pout. If there is even such a thing.

Harry smirked with right cheek to make sure Gabriel seen it and returned to facing his bed and owl, Hedwig.

"Alright sourpuss, get up, we got some exercises to do. Then we got to get you some clothes. I don't want my charge to look like a french tart."

Giving a muffled snicker, Harry stretched once again and stood up while vertigo suddenly popped up behind his eyes. "Whoa." He swayed and caught himself with the wall to his left. He shook his head of the dissipating fog and stood up straight.

"Yeah, that vertigo is a killer. It'll lessen over time." He went to the center of the room and sat pretzel style on the hardwood floor. "Sit across from me, likewise," indicating his crossed legs.

Following the man's request, he struggled a second to reorient his bodies boundaries to itself to cross his legs correctly. "Bloody long legs, I don't understand how people do it."

"Shush. Most people would kill for your height, so don't complain. Speaking of, this exercise is to familiarize your sense boundaries of your body to help coordinate your balance and such."

"How do we do that?"

"We sit here for ten hours straight while I hum elevator music."

"What!"

Gabriel gave a chuckle, "You are too easy. Relax, all I am going to do is lean forward while your eyes are closed and get as close to touching you without actually touching you. You'll tell me when you 'sense' my hands getting near you."

"Sounds easy enough. How long does it usually take?"

"Usually a couple hours, depending on the person."

Harry gave a long suffering sigh, "Let's just get it out of the way, I'm getting hungry again."

* * *

Hermione was having the most fun she could remember having with her parents. Spending time with them was more gratifying than most vacations she took with them. Currently, they were exiting the theater with her in the middle of her family of three while the two adult were bickering about the favorite scene of the movie they just watched.

"I tell you, woman, that the best part was where Robert was being totted around in the chair like he was the king of England himself!"

"You great big oaf, the best was obviously where he realized he was falling for his fake wife. You were just into seeing womanly bits and naughty humor."

"Take that back!"

"Nope. No refunds."

Going for the neutral position, Hermione decided to maneuver the topic to safer locale. She was after all in between her two squabbling parents.

"Why don't we all agree that Restoration was a good movie and leave it at that? I swear, every time we go out to see a new movie, you both have to reenact parliament sessions during the riots!"

Both her parents gave a defensive pout and turned their heads in mock annoyance.

Hermione laughed softly at their maturity and hugged both of them to her sides lovingly.

"So where to now, dad?"

Figuring that the game was officially over, he replied, "I guess we can walk a bit around down town while we wait for the reservations at Darjeeling to get here. Let's get to the auto then." He clapped his hands together, obviously proud of himself for making the plans.

Hermione and her mother, Amelia, rolled their eyes. This has happened before on numerous occasions.

The short and comfortable walk to their family black Vauxhall Astra went silently and they all entered to their usual places. Cleo and Amelia in the front with her father driving and Hermione in the back middle seat so she talk to her parents easier.

Readjusting her cobalt chiffon blouse over her black sleeveless undershirt for the fifth time during the car ride, she realized she was actually nervous about something. She didn't know what it was, even her intelligent mind wasn't being forthcoming. She could cope with the not knowing something angle; what she could stand was the annoying clenching and jitters in her stomach.

Before she could come up with a reasonable answer for it, they pulled over to an empty parking slot on the left side of the road and the car was put into park. They all exited the car and started idly meandering through the sparse crowds of downtown.

Their feet carried them a bit north of the delectable Indian cuisine restaurant to the Priory Gardens to look at the beautiful English architecture preserved from the beginning of the town itself.

Hermione watched her parents leaning against each other in front of her while they gazed upon a particular section. _'I wish I could have that someday,' _she thought with a touch of melancholy.

Her mother looked over her left shoulder to glimpse at her daughter, "Hermione, are you alright dear?"

That seemed to snap her out of the trance she was in. "Yes, mum. Just miles away. Say, we are a bit north of where we should be, why don't we cross over to High Street and walk down it for a bit?"

Her parent's eyes connected for a brief moments before her father answered, "Sorry, I get sidetracked around two beautiful women. You know how us blokes get!"

Amelia rolled her eyes and their daughter just gave a slight laugh. Hermione wrapped her arms around herself and mockingly replied, "Okay Casanova, let's get to it. Just for that horrible joke, you are buying us proper ladies hot chocolate." She put her nose up into the air much the humor of her companions and walked towards the main road via sidewalk.

She didn't notice her parent's smiles while they trailed behind her.

Once they met High Street, they once again huddled together with Hermione in the center to stifle the slight summer chill descending on the town. They passed The Darjeeling restaurant and continued to the corner hot chocolate stand available every night of the week, except weekends, and leisurely ordered three cups.

They all headed to the nearest wooden bench facing the road to pass the time by watching cars slowly make their way down the one-way road.

"So Hermione, how is school going?" Her father was always a tad excitable learning about the wizarding world.

"Not much happened this year, despite what I told you about what happened before the break started. We had the most horrible woman for a defense teacher and was adamant about making Harry's life...well horrible. She was basically a walking, talking propaganda standard for the Fudge administration. In the end, it all worked out. For the school that is."

Both her parents nodded in slight understanding while Amelia was watching a red vehicle make its way through the street and her father sipped his chocolate.

Apparently her father wasn't satisfied with that. "What about what you learned, I bet you picked up some nifty tricks during the year?"

Smiling, Hermione elaborated, "Of course, I wouldn't be a genius if I didn't do so; even with the wicked witch of the west breathing down our necks." She paused to blow a raspberry in her father's face, "Harry taught a group of students and I this really wonderful charm called the Patronus Charm. It uses our happiest memories to create an animal as a guard of sorts."

"What does it guard you from?" Cleo asked patiently, knowing he would get the answer regardless.

"It defends you from the vilest creatures known to wizarding kind everywhere: dementors. The quite literally suck the happiness out of you, makes you focus on your worst memories. They can also preform The Kiss which, disturbingly enough, sucks out one's soul." Both her parents gasped at that. Her father was about to rush into a discussion of the religious implications when he noticed the look in Hermione's eyes.

She was about to continue when something, or someone, caught her eyes towards the left over her fathers broad shoulders. _'Is that...no can't be.'_

Her parents noticed Hermione's focus on something to their left and turned to see what it was.

"Do you know those men, Hermione?" Her mother inquired while still looking towards the men in question.

"I'm not sure, they both look a lot like Harry. But Harry is short, really short. Like five-six short. Those two look up to around six foot easily, maybe even taller. It's just their hair and posture scream Harry."

Her mother turned her attention back to Hermione. "Harry doesn't have a twin, right? Because those two look awfully similar, with the exception of one is dressed rather shabbily and the other is in expensive looking clothing."

"That's just it, Harry dresses shabbily as well. Oh well, must be some kind of weird déjà vu. Anyways, dad, shouldn't we be heading towards the restaurant now? It's almost nine o'clock."

Her father gave a quick knee jerk by the sudden attention of his daughter. "Good thinking, luv. Almost went passed me. Let's get there quickly, I can't wait to get my hands on some of the beef nehari!" Her father basically dragged them both up the street to their destination.

With smiling eyes and lips, Hermione allowed herself to be led by her ravenous father. Her mind on the other hand, while still amused, was wondering about Harry. She looked back over her should to see if she could get another look at the men, but saw that they already entered the clothing store they were standing in front.

_'I hope you are okay, Harry, and whatever it is you are doing I hope it doesn't follow your usual moda operandi.'_

* * *

"Jesus, Gabriel! She almost recognized me! What were you thinking about bringing us here?"

"I was thinking you needed new clothes."

"Well, I still think we could have gone elsewhere. Why here?"

Gabriel opened the front door and held it open for Harry while he walked into the clothing store. "Because, suits are great for two reasons: one – suits are awesome for kicking ass in, and two – reason number one is never wrong. Get over it, she didn't believe it was you, else we would have a very...perturbed Hermione on our hands."

"You have no idea."

"I bet you I do. Back on track though, I chose this place because it was the closest suit store open after seven."

Knowing he already lost this battle, he flexed his now more defined forearms to relieve the minor annoyance that was making him want to stretch again. He already done so ten times since they got here. That is not counting the many times he did during the exercise Gabriel was using to reintegrate his body's balance into muscle memory.

Gabriel stepped over to the waist-high glass desk and caught the attention of the bored looking salesmen.

"Welcome to James Cox, gentlemen," the once bored looking older man introduce. "My name is Connor and if you need any help, I'll be delighted to attend."

Harry raised his right eyebrow and Gabriel just gave an amused breath of air.

Gabriel took the lead from here, with knowing more about fashion than the sheltered Harry Potter. "I am needing a suit here for my...twin brother, Harry."

Harry pumped the offered hand twice and straightened back up to watch the master at work.

"Well, as you can see, my brother Harry isn't really dressed to impress and I was curious if you could help cure him of that plight." Harry thought he was enjoying this too much. Sure enough, the brother bond was projecting vast amounts of amusement and silently rolled his eyes.

With a nod, Michal reached over the counter to fetch the measuring tape and returned to the duo.

"Okay Harry, please raise your arms for while I make the measurements. This won't take very long and after that, we'll work on fabrics and styles."

Harry gave Michal a thankful expression and did as he was told. No more that thirty minutes later, the measurements were complete and the clerk walked over to the desk and took out a thick leather-bound book. He returned with it and placed it in front of the two and started flipping through the pages. Harry realized that instead of a photo album of sorts, it was cataloged with different selections of patterns, fabrics, jacket selections and everything you'd expect to find in a suit store of sort.

Twenty three minutes later, they came to their decision of what they wanted and proceeded to converse terms with the man helping them.

As the end drew near, Harry thanked the many gods he didn't even know about and was asked a question by Michal.

"Harry, now that we got that part out of the way, how many sets would you need besides the four you originally chosen?"

"Just two of everything. Except the dinner jacket, I just want one of those."

"Excellent choice, sir. I'll go right now and see if we have any outfits matching your description, if not it will probably take a week to go about producing the finished product."

"Thank you for explaining, Michal. We'll just be waiting over here."

After the older man left, Harry rounded on Gabriel.

"I hope you know that I despise shopping. So if this takes longer than two hours, I'm bailing and resorting to hand me downs again."

Gabriel accepted the ultimatum with a _mysterious_ smirk on his lips, "You're just grouchy that you didn't get to say 'hi' to Hermione. Just be patient, it will happen when it happens. Plus, think on this, she would most definitely freak out if she saw you the way you are now."

"Well still, I felt like a right prat for not saying hello, at least."

"Oh come now, my young protegee, we have much work to do!"

Accepting his fate, Gabriel led him to the counter with an arm over his shoulder.

"At least this is better than sitting around doing nothing, I can live with it." He said this all with such an elaborately drawn out drawl, it caused Gabriel to give another familiar bark of laughter that this time, only caused a slight twinge in his chest.

A slight chill ran down Harry's neck and suddenly halted conversing with Gabriel about the pros and cons of boxer briefs and plain boxers.

"You feel that Gabriel? I feel like something is happening. It's weird, this has happened twice now. Once right before you arrived and this is the second."

Giving Harry an odd stare, Gabriel looked out the window and stood stock still for a moment. Harry noticed how still he seemed, it was a completely still posture. Nothing was moving on Gabriel. It was impossible for humans to get that statuesque, let alone multiple seconds.

"Indeed, that would most like just be you detecting magic nearby. Magical focal points on the planet sometimes shift, and if you are in tune with your magic enough, you can pick up the shifts themselves."

"Is that normal?"

"Not really common, but it isn't unheard of. A couple of us had the ability as well so it shouldn't be _too _alarming."

"Oh yeah, I almost forgot. Like I said, when you got to my room, I felt that chill then, too. But I could also...feel the magic. It felt like I was tracing it to its origin. I was also pushing my magic somehow towards the disturbance that you created. Any theories?"

"Of course, but we'll hold off on those till we get back. Would want the poor chap working here to think he is serving a couple of nutters."

"Good point. We'll finish this later."

After Harry felt the remnants of the chill disperse, he noticed that the salesman was returning. _'Merlin...'_

Michal was indeed returning, but he was returning with piles of clothing and fabric in his arms. The pile easily passed the top of his head and it seemed never ending. Harry gave an audible groan realizing his night just got that much longer.


	5. Chapter 5: The Times be A-shiftin'

**A/N: **Hey fanfictors, here is an update for you. I know the story is proceeding slowly somewhat, that's the point of this story. I want this to be explained fully and the reader being able to follow the character developments and different story lines with entertaining ease. I am sorry if this isn't your cup of tea, but I really hate how some stories just go from point A to point B then straight to Z. I hate it with the passion of a thousand suns. Anyways, rant over. Oh, and thank you for the reviews for those who submitted them. Enjoy the story!

**A/N-2: **Sorry about re-uploading. Again. Apparently, when I add a new document, FF liked to remove a couple THOUSAND words. Pft. Well, here it is again. Sorry.

_Standard disclaimers apply_**  
**

**The Times be A-shiftin'**

In an oval shaped room, scattered with many odd-looking trinkets and papers, there stood a tall figure looking out over the grounds. His face fading into view when the clouds passed the moon allowing the moonlight to hit it. The shimmering white beard reached down to the man's kneecaps and was wild due to his hands combing through it in constant thought.

Albus Dumbledore was worried. He worried about a lot of things, as was his duty due to his many stations. But what worried him the most was a boy, no young man, that he oversaw at his school.

Harry Potter was on his mind, wondering if he did the right things when it came to poor Harry. He loved the boy as if he were his own. Yet, he knew, he had to keep a subjective approach when it came to his upbringing.

Now, he had told Harry the prophecy right after his godfather passed through the veil. It was the most inopportune moment to do this, but it had to be done. He wanted Harry to have the childhood he spoke of when Harry wanted answers. It looked as if it was all for not.

All the waiting, all the aloofness when it came to training him. He let it pass by, hoping beyond hope, that Harry could find a measure of happiness that he so rightfully deserved.

But every year Harry walked the halls of Hogwarts, a new travesty struck the school and Harry seemed to always be stuck in the middle of it. _'So much time I let slip through our fingers..,'_ Dumbledore thought.

Albus turned away from the window, deciding that he would figure out what to train Harry in. Or figure out how much good it would do, now. He sat his high-backed chair and leaned back while staring at his slumbering friend, Fawkes.

"I won't simply let Harry die, I will not." His murmuring woke up Fawkes who looked at Albus questioningly.

"I'm sorry Fawkes, I didn't mean to disturb you."

Fawkes let out a light comforting trill that eased the ache of despair that was coursing through Albus heart.

"Thank you, my friend. I...I just don't know what to do. I hold all these titles, I'm almost two centuries old and I still don't know what to do. Harry is the best of us. I don't want to see that light go out."

Realizing that Albus was wanting conversation, Fawkes stretched out his expansive wings and sat up on his perch to see into Albus' eyes. He chirped quietly.

Albus leaned over and put his face into his hands and rubbed his eyes. His active mind was throbbing due to his over use of it while trying to plan out the future.

"The timescale is advancing to soon. Voldemort is gaining strength back to soon and his army is swelling. I haven't even prepared Harry for what he must do!" He slammed his right hand down in a fist that caused a loud bang. Fawkes didn't startle, knowing how upset Albus was over this matter. He chirped a couple of times, relaying what he was thinking.

"I can't just start training him, Fawkes. The Ministry will come down on us like it did last year. Even with people realizing Voldemort is really back, the Ministry will bastardize our relationship and crucify us both. It will set us back even further when dealing with Tom."

A few more impatient chirps could be heard.

"I know, but hiding the training will be difficult. You know Harry, he has great potential for his magic. You felt it before he left this summer. It's just beneath the surface, waiting for the correct catalyst to unleash it."

Fawkes ruffled his feathers and trilled slightly, trying to enforce the idea as a good one.

"I know training him will help him utilize it's full potential, but it will be uncontrollable while he is here. The students would feel the magic coming from him and I do _not _want Voldemort to hear about that. He will attack the school when he realizes how much of a threat Harry is becoming."

A silent shrug of his wings, Fawkes looked at the dying embers of his perch and flared the inner flames of his magic to rekindle them to life again.

Albus watched Fawkes doing this, giving his eyes something to look at while his mind was once again looking for answers.

"What if Harry - ."

Whatever the aged Headmaster was going to say died on his lips as Fawkes and he looked over at the window abruptly. There was no sound. Not even in the forest, where you could hear the constant drone of the insects.

"Fawkes, did you feel that?"

A panicked trill came from Fawkes.

Albus stood up quickly and went to the center of the room, the squat turquoise hat sitting on his head went flying in his movement. Once in the center, he brought out his long white-washed wand and waved it over his head in an arch.

After the silent movement of his wand, a slight whine of something could be heard in the ceiling of the room. Another circle wave over his head caused the ceiling to disappear and show an inky blackness shrouding whatever was up there.

Slowly, the whine increased with a squelch and a large circular object was lowering into the office. The color was a startling onyx black and when it reached to a foot off the floor, it suddenly stopped. Albus a quick smile at one of his favorite inventions, but it dispersed as quickly as it came. The situation didn't call for it.

He raised his wand once more in his right hand and tapped the black ball in front of him. First nothing happen but then from the point he tapped, the blackness covering the globe removed itself like a curtain would be pulled up.

When the black covering was gone, what Albus had in his office was an immense figure of Earth. All the continents and oceans rotating with the Earth. You could see the slight movements of the oceans and the waves in them. Albus walked around it, even though he didn't particularly need to with the globe spinning on its axis.

He just liked gazing at his prized creation.

Fawkes on the other hand had seen this particular invention during the making process and wasn't so enraptured. He was still looking out the window, not moving a single reddish-golden feather.

"Fawkes, where did the disturbance come from?"

Still looking out the window, Fawkes chirped haltingly for a moment.

"Thank you."

Albus put his wand against the slowly moving globe which cause it to pause. He then reached up to tap true north of the planet and bowed to tap true south. He slipped his wand back up his left sleeve and extended his hands outwards as if to embrace the globe.

"Revelare magicae punctis."

The globe exploded in color as lines rose from beneath the surface of the oceans and continents. The lines were pulsing as they crisscrossed and flowed in unknowing directions. Several points though, where the magic crisscrossed glowed brighter than the rest.

"Impossible..."

At this, Fawkes finally looked at Albus and then the globe. He gave a loud chirp, wanting to know the results.

Albus though just continued to watch the pulsing points over certain spots on continents. Not removing his eyes, "Fawkes...they are moving! The magical nexus' are...moving. How is this possible?"

He had to know though, he whipped out his wand once more and rotated the glowing construct so it he facing the eastern shore of the Atlantic Ocean. He peered at his homeland and searched for northern Scotland.

His eyes stopped. His breathing stopped, His heart damn near stopped.

_'It can't be.'_

He had his eyes locked onto where Hogwarts was located. The location for Hogwarts was specifically chosen due to the fact that a magical nexus was below the grounds of the school. It allowed better control and flow of magic and was instrumental for certain higher level rituals the upper-year students participated in.

Now the nexus was moving. All of the nexus' on the planet were moving. The one under Hogwarts was moving west towards the ocean. The one over Greenland and Iceland was moving south. The One in Morocco was moving in a slight Northwest pattern towards an invisible point like all the rest.

"Where ever they are all moving, it seems to be focused in the Atlantic Ocean."

He rushed over to the cabinet that held all of his arithmancy equipment and grabbed a sextant and a slide ruler. He gave a wry thought, _'Haven't used these since my time in Hogwarts.'_

With the equipment in his left hand, he waved the wand in his right and caused the circular globe to flatten into a surface where he could utilize the equipment.

He laid the slide rule against it and lined it up to the point where Hogwarts was and the glowing nexus of magical energy was traveling along it side to a point in the ocean. Albus grabbed he wand and shook it like it was ridding it of excess moisture. He drew a fiery line from Hogwarts and passed the globule of energy and ending it halfway across the Atlantic.

Looking for the next point to use, he found the northern point in Greenland and did the same as he did for Hogwart's nexus. This time, the line went in a slight southeastern fashion and he ended it after it intersect the line from Hogwarts.

He found the shifting nexus in Nova Scotia and did the same as before, stopping it when it intersected at the same point the others did.

Deciding to get the southern line, so he could be sure of their courses, he chose Rio Grande do Norte's nexus and traced a line, too. He was confused as to the reason but he continued to trace the line.

The point intersected at the same spot at the others.

"It can't be possible. What does this mean?"

The points were on a course to overlap in the North Atlantic Sea. "Latitude fifty-two degrees, forty minutes, and ten point nine seconds. Longitude negative thirty five, nineteen minutes, and fifty-five point three seconds. What is so special about this point?" He asked rhetorically.

Fawkes just gave a confused chirp as if saying he didn't know either. He looked back out the window and shuffled his wings to his sides.

Albus stood there, his left arm across his slender chest while still clutching the forgotten sextant. His right arm perched on top of the arm and was using his hand to stroke the beard at his chin.

Nothing in any historical records he knew of paralleled the now moving nexus'. The only one that ever moved was the one over Chile when it died out. Nature was apart of the magic on Earth and if one goes, so does the other. South America always had the problem of evaporating Nexus' thanks to deforestation.

But this, whatever it was, was like a congregation. All of the major points were moving towards a central point. _'It's like a council...wait!'_

After that thought, he dropped the irrelevant sextant and rushed over to his quarters to access his personal library. He threw open his bedroom door and power walked to the bookcase by the desk opposite of the comfortable looking bed.

He used his right index finger to trace the titles of the numerous books on the shelves. He was halfway through the bookcase when he found what he was looking for. He gave a triumphant grin and pulled the book out and moved to his desk and sat down on the squashy chair.

Minutes passed and Albus continued flicking through the pages. He stopped and looked towards his door where he could see a portion of the globe, still spinning. He looked back down, and back up.

"It couldn't be that simple."

He looked back down at the ragged and old tome in his hands and continued reading. He finished the strange coalition of symbols once again and looked back through the door.

"Fawkes, can you come in here?"

A sudden burst of fire and there Fawkes was on top of the comforter for Albus' bed. He gave a questioning trill.

"Do you think, that is to say, it is possible for multiple planes of existence to actually exist," Albus asked with a slight tremble to his voice. He held up the book so Fawkes could see the cover. The cover was a light burgundy and the lettering was a bright gold, still shining despite the old condition of the book. It's title read: _Realms and their Doors, by Korgan Dimisci_.

Fawkes looked at the book, then back at Albus. He then shifted awkwardly on his legs to turn to door and look the spinning recreation of Earth. He looked back at Albus again and chirped.

"Do you think you could meet with your Elders? I will do whatever they ask of me for the answer. This is troubling."

Albus' friend gazed into his aged blue eyes and nodded after a second. Albus knew what he was doing, giving a boon to the phoenixes was not done lightly. He got the message Fawkes was telling him with that stare.

"Thank you, Fawkes. I'll wait for their reply."

With another quick chirp from Fawkes, he launched into the air and flashed away in a illuminating flash-fire. He left Albus alone who was starring back at his invention.

"What does this mean?"

* * *

"Finally!"

"Stop whining, it's unbecoming."

"Oh shut it, Gabriel. You should know, of all people, how impatient I am when it comes to shopping."

There was a slight pause.

"You try living for as long as I have, and you outgrow impatience. Trust me."

"You are one of those people who says 'trust me' too much, aren't you."

Gabriel stopped from where they were walking up High Street once they left James Cox. He looked over at Harry and said blandly, "Well, seeing as I work for clandestine entities for the good of the world, it's kind of a given." He continued walking and cuffed Harry on the back of the head.

"Hey! I am just making conversation, no need to be abusive."

"Baby."

"Old man."

"Touche."

The both chuckled after their little mock argument. It was strange for Harry, he's never really had a comfortable conversation with another guy before. With Ron, it was all Quidditch and food. The other blokes in his year at school weren't really chatty with Harry. Neville was alright, he figured, he was just shy.

"So, Master Gabriel, where do we journey now?"

Gabriel shook his head with wry humor. "Well, we need to get back to your place. We got to plan out this road trip I am taking you on. Then I have to check on something. Remember that magical disturbance we felt back in the shop?" Harry nodded with a questioning look. "Well, I felt it to. It's not just here, I felt it worldwide. It's something new to me. And I don't know if it's a good thing or not."

"What do you mean worldwide?"

Gabriel gestured to a bench a little bit ways up the road and they sat upon it. Harry could smell the exotic scent coming from the Indian cuisine restaurant coming from across the street. He took in the place for a second, the looked back to Gabriel when he started speaking.

"I mean, the flux of that much magic is abnormal. I've never encountered it before. I'll have to jump back to headquarters and inquire about it with the Intel Department."

"When will you do this 'jumping'?"

"Oh, I will as soon as I get you back to your room and show you how to properly dress in these things."

"How long will you be gone?"

"About a minute."

Harry just gaped at Gabriel in astonishment. _'There is no way he be that fast.'_

"Oh yeah," Gabriel saw the look and chuckled, "let me explain that. I can insert myself in any point in time if I choose to. Doesn't matter if I'm at HQ for a year after I leave, I can return the second after I leave from your room if I choose to. Helps us keep up our timescales. Since our realms doesn't use time like yours does, we can exist outside of it. Meaning, we can jump into any time we feel it most opportune."

"Why didn't you jump to me before this summer?"

"I think we glimpsed over this before. Anyways, like I said then, usually the balance tips during this summer. If I came before, I could of caused a deviation of the time flow and created another reality. We, who I work with, can't do this. Deviations have to be caused through natural interactions of the inhabitants of Earth."

"Ah, I understand. Thanks."

"No problem. Now, before we go back, do you want to grab something to eat? I'll buy in celebration of you not wearing crap clothing any more."

Harry gave a snort while he tugged at his left cuff with his right hand. The darn thing was stiff.

"Stop pulling at it, it's new and it'll loosen up once you get used to it. Be happy, you look good in a suit. I should know," he winked at the inside joke. Well, _his _inside joke.

"You're hilarious. I have to wonder if your wife just ignores you when you make a joke or if she is deaf."

"My wife has a great sense of humor and laughs at my jokes. Bad or not."

"Ah, true love."

"Damn straight, mister."

The both chuckled again. Harry was struck again at the strange comfortable feeling he got from just being around Gabriel. He figured this is what it would be like if he had a _real _brother growing up.

Seeing the brief sombre look pass over Harry faces, Gabriel clapped him on the should and squeezed reassuringly. "Don't worry about it, Harry. You have family all around you, and soon you will have one of your own."

"I know, it's just...hard knowing that I'm the last of my actual family. I could have had a brother or sister. Or grandparents. Only if Voldemort didn't exist. We humans seem so small at times."

"We are small, but we are all part of a big picture. Without one of us, the picture looks incomplete. Even the smudges on the canvas have character. They define the picture."

Harry smiled softly while looking down at his new black ankle boots from the store. They looked strange on him, Harry thought. _'I was never comfortable in dress clothes.'_

"Gabriel, your analogies are out there. Good, but way _way _out there."

Gabriel gave a brief bark of laughter and removed his arm from around Harry's shoulders. "Come on, let's go check out..," he looked over at the restaurant, "The Darjeeling." He shrugged his shoulders at the odd name.

With a nod of Harry's head, they stood up and Harry gave a stretch. "God, I wish I could stop stretching!"

After Gabriel's quiet laughter, they checked the road and started walking across. They were about to open the door when Gabriel suddenly stopped and yanked Harry into the alleyway.

"Gabriel, what are you - ."

"Quiet," he whispered.

The door around the corner leading into the restaurant jingled open and an accented voice called out, "Don't be strangers, Grangers!"

Harry cocked his head for a second then realization dawned on him.

"Oh shit," he whispered so only Gabriel could hear him.

Three shadows on the sidewalk showed that the Granger family was outside the door.

"We won't!" Called out a distinct male voice. _'Probably Hermione's dad.'_

The door closed with a little jingle and they could see the shadows of the family heading towards the alleyway.

Gabriel waved his hand towards the entrance of the alley. The entrance rippled like transparent water for a split second then calmed.

Harry leaned to the left to see around Gabriel's head and watched as Hermione and her family walked past the mouth of the alley while they talked and laughed. _'She really grew up,' _he thought wryly.

Apparently his thoughts were broadcasting as Gabriel looked over his should and cocked an eyebrow and snickered. "Keep it in your pants, lover boy."

Harry flushed a deep crimson that contrasted with his pale complexion and looked back down to his YMC ankle boots. _'Stupid new shoes, and stupid guardian angels.' _

"Hey, don't take it out on your new shoes. It's not their fault that you can't help but drool when a pretty witch walks by."

Of course, he laughed at the crimsoning face of Harry when he saw it in the light.

"Oh shut it, I think they are gone. Can we please go back so I can throw myself out the window?"

"Don't be so dramatic, it's okay to be attracted to a girl, I'm not saying it's wrong. I'm just taking the mickey out of you. Remember what I said about pranks?"

"Unfortunately."

"Well there you go, take some of the things I say that are obviously jokes with a grain of salt. You'll live longer." He turned his head back towards the entrance and waved his hand palm out in a downwards fashion. The entrance once again rippled and the illusion vanished. The sounds of the tired city amplified and carried to Harry's ears, where he just realized that the sounds were muffled when what ever it was Gabriel used went up.

Gabriel blew out a gust of air between his lips in relief at not being seen. He turned back to Harry, "Enough adventure for one day, let's just had back and eat there."

"Are we..?"

Grinning, Gabriel replied, "We sure are."

Harry's face lit up in glee and exclaimed, "You _have _to teach me it!"

"Alright, alright. Just grab hold of my arm before you ruin your new cloths from excitement."

Not even caring about the crude joke, Harry latched onto Gabriel's left upper arm with his right hand and clamped tightly, but not uncomfortably tight.

"Hold on," Gabriel warned.

A gust of wind came in through the mouth of the alleyway and swirled around the two men, bellowing their loose clothing. Harry could feel the slight tingle of magic spreading through him and looked down to see the process.

His lower legs started to break off and join the wind swirling around them; it was surprisingly painless. Slowly, the parts breaking off came faster and soon it was up to his torso. He now knew the true definition of phantom feeling in his limbs. He could feel them, flex them even, but they weren't there.

"This is so cool."

Gabriel smirked.

The wind picked up once more and they both whispered out of the alley with the wind.

Harry closed his eyes as Gabriel instructed from their first trip this way. He felt the lightness and flowing of the wind around him, knowing he was apart of it. All to quickly, it stopped and when he opened his eyes he was standing back in his homely little room.

"Yep. That's going to be the first thing you teach me."

Gabriel walked out of Harry's grip while laughing and headed to the refrigerator.

"Harry, we seriously have a sick obsession with being in the wind. But I promise to get around to teaching it."

Harry couldn't hold back the crack, "You're the best, love."

His friend gave another loud bark of laughter while pulling out two chilled bottle of water. He tossed one over he shoulder and Harry, seeing this, snatched it out of the air. The perspiration on the bottle causing it to slip and he started to juggle it trying to get a hold on the bottle. Gabriel turned to see what the matter was and promptly starting guffawing at Harry's trouble.

The battle was lost when the bottle hit the floor with a wet _thump _and Harry sighed before picking it up.

"You know Harry, for being the youngest seeker in a century, you have crap motor skills."

Harry sat down at the desk again and stuck his tongue out at him. "It's all your fault and you know it, Gabe."

"Yeah, that's why it's so damned funny."

Harry gave an exasperated sigh and twisted the plastic lid off before gulping the water down greedily.

"Dang, I worked up quite the thirst back there. Why?"

"Remember how I said you'd be needing more fuel for your body? Yeah, seeing as your body is basically seventy percent water, it's going to crave water more now. You're body temperature should be up a few degrees as well, with all the energy your internal functions are burning through."

"Oh yeah, I should of figured that out."

"Don't worry, your brain will get up to speed in a bit. It's still...calibrating."

Nodding, Harry turned back to the water and downed it till it was half gone.

"So, what do you want? We got chicken, lean steak, and salmon."

"Chicken, if you would."

Gabriel nodded and picked up the container for the chicken and went about preparing it as he done earlier for the steak.

While watching him, still trying to figure it out, Harry asked, "What should I do while you are gone?"

Pausing while placing the container of chicken slices back into the fridge and continuing, he replied, "You need to shower. During your little growth spurt, you sweated a good bit. I removed the grime and what not, but you still smell a bit. Plus it will relax your muscles from the stress of tearing and rebuilding as quick as it did."

"Gotcha. What do you think is causing those disturbances? Oh and you talked about my sensing them."

Gabriel gave an hummed the affirmative. "We'll go with the second thing as I rightly have no clue about the first. Well, like I said before, some people have the innate ability to sense these...shifts of magical energy. It's like that feeling normals get when they feel like they are being watched. Some are more attuned to it than others. Following?"

Harry nodded, his long shaggy hair falling into his face again.

"Right. These energy pulses can be caused by magic being used nearby or they can be actual pulses through the major magical ley-lines."

"Magical ley-lines?"

"Hm, oh, they probably don't teach this till later at Hogwarts. The ley-lines are the major streams of magical energy stretching across Earth. They were laid here by the elves before they left this realm, to help the magical users pursue their art. The elves wanted to help spread out magical factions to keep infighting down between users. Having them all in one spot would only cause problems."

"The elves did all that? Wow, they most of been immensely powerful."

"You have no idea. I mean, it was still a group effort on their part, but elves themselves are unique in their ability to channel magic through their body without the need of a focus. They are basically pure magic."

"Neat. Why did they leave though? I'm kind of surprised they'd do all that work, then just _poof_, they leave."

"Elves were realizing that their time here was coming to an end. Mankind was growing and spreading. The Elven Council decided that they didn't want to interfere in the growing of man. They wanted us to grow on our own, to see ourselves through our own evolution."

"Kind of sounds pretentious to me."

Gabriel broke out in laughter and leaned over the table where he was making the food. He even had to steady himself by holding the table.

"That's the _exact _same thing I said!"

"Really?"

Straightening back up, Gabriel continued the impromptu history lesson. "Yeah, except at the time, I was talking to one of my trainers. He was an elf and didn't take too kindly to what I said. I had to assure him I meant no disrespect before he gutted me!"

Harry slapped the table while laughing at the moronic naivety his other self showed. Even he knew not to unknowingly speak ill of a persons culture in front of a person from said culture.

"Yeah, it was pretty humorous later after we got all things settled. Even Aldurin, my trainer, joined in. I, of course, had to buy the first round at the local tavern for the next week but it was worth it."

"Smooth. So yeah, continue with the story, Treat Williams."

"If you would shut your mouth, maybe I would! Anyways, the elves did it as a blessing towards mankind, meaning that they believed they could now handle the world without their aid. Remember, around the time this happened, the world was a lot more rough than it is now. Hell, three thousand years ago wasn't as rough as it was then."

"How so?"

"It was more magical. Hordes of intelligent dragons rampaging cities for their lands and gold. Goblins were more warlike and would slaughter human and other sentient beings for food and resources. The goblins of today are more cultured than they were then, but they are still fierce warriors. And then there were rogue necromancers. Horrible beings so powerful that they would raise armies so large they would shake the ground. Just to lay waste to another necromancer for more power, not caring of the normal folk that were in between them."

"Damn, that does sound rough."

"Yeah, humans were relatively small in numbers then, so we had no way of protecting ourselves from these destructive forces. That's where the elves came in. They'd been fighting these beings for years, so they knew how to combat them. They would help protect the humans and would some times train a human champion in their ways to help after they left."

"Talk about your good Samaritans."

Gabriel gave a light chuckle and finished his tale, "Yep. But they seeing more than we ever could about the future, they decided it was our time for Earth. Most of the darker elements had perished and the intelligence left the minds of the dragons. The age of man came to Earth around...fifty thousand years ago."

Harry gave a low whistle while pulling the prepared dish towards him. Gabriel nodded and sat down while pulling the other dish towards himself.

Harry was halfway through his meal when Gabriel spoke up once more.

"Harry, you can't really discuss what I told you to anyone. I am allowed to tell you this as you are essentially me, but other people can use this to try and cause...problems."

Looking up with a confused look, Harry swallowed and asked, "How could learning about Elves cause problems?"

Gabriel really looked uncomfortable at this. "Let's just say, some humans would feel compelled to seek out the elves. Tearing into different realms is a dangerous thing to do. If they messed up the process, they could inadvertently destroy the planet."

With wide eyes, Harry just sat there. He slowly nodded seeing the point.

"I'm not saying you are _forbidden_ from talking of it. You have to trust the person severely to even consider it. Just, please be careful with this information. I'd never hear the end of it if I caused myself to destroy this realities planet."

Gracious for Gabriel's attempt at light humor, Harry smirked his right cheek and nodded.

Gabriel finished his chicken and broccoli dinner first and waved his hand so the remnants dematerialized back into the ether from where they came. He stood up and stretched his back and several pops could be heard originating from his upper back. He flopped his arms back down and gave a content sigh.

"Well Harry, I'll be back in a bit. I'll give you an hour so you can shower and do whatever needs doing."

Suddenly apprehensive about being alone, he nodded.

"Don't worry, brother. I'll return on the hour, I promise." He gave Harry a smile to reassure him.

Harry gave a wry grin and nodded, thanking him without words.

Gabriel moved over to the coat rack where he hung his jacket up while making the food, he plucked it off the hook and whipped around, smoothly putting his arms in. It was a practiced move apparently.

"See you in a bit."

Harry watched as Gabriel used his left hand the turn the same silver ring that was on his right middle finger and then he was gone. Harry caught the scent of ozone briefly before it was blown out the window.

He gave a sigh, now feeling the loneliness he was afraid of. His mind once more active and taking in the veritable fountain of information around him was spurring on his loneliness.

_'That's definitely not helping.'_

He focused on that nothingness from earlier and slowly the thoughts disappeared into the blackness he created. He took a breath, reveling in this neutral state he was in.

"Ah, much better."

He left his plate where it was, figuring Gabriel would remove it once he came back. Hedwig gave a soft hoot, waking up from her day time slumber and Harry moved over to her.

"Hey girl, how was your sleep?"

Hedwig preened at his attention while he ran his long fingers through the downy feathers on her head. He scratched below her beak and she emitted a soft warble of appreciation.

Harry chuckled, "Alright you needy bird, enough attention for now. I left some chicken on the plate for you, if you want it. Thought I might broaden your palate a little bit."

He gave Hedwig a wink that he was unsure of if she understood. Apparently she did as he saw her roll her eyes. _'Imagine that.'_

With a smile, he watched Hedwig launch herself from the headboard and then the soft _clak clak _of her talons impacting on the wooden surface of the desk. He watched her bend over and eye the leftovers speculatively for a moment before tearing off a piece and mulled it over.

She gave an appreciative screech and then dug in with gusto.

Before Harry left the room, he gave her a parting shot, "Just so you know, chicken is a type of bird. Just some food for thought."

The sight of Hedwig starring wide eyed at him with a piece of chicken hanging out of her beak was more than enough for Harry to start laughing uproariously.

Realizing he would probably pay for that later on, he quickly made it out the door into the hallway. He heard a squeak from his left and he looked over to see his overweight cousin Dudley looking frightened and _up _at him from his bedroom doorway.

"Whats up, Dudders?"

"What the bloody hell happened to you, Potter?"

Realizing he was referring to his new look and not his new clothes, he smiled mischievously down at his cousin.

"I grew up."

Dudley wasn't satisfied with just that and he pressed on, thinking that this was the same meek Harry he grew up with.

"Did you do something freakish to get yourself like that?"

Harry gave a light chuckle, "You could say that."

"Mum and dad won't take kindly to that. Dad will thump you a good one when finds out!"

"Oh, he can surely try. I just don't really give a damn."

Leaving his cousin in the doorway, he walked into the bathroom and closed the door behind him. He smiled brightly, he has been wanting to say that for years.

Taking off the black designer jacket Gabriel made him put on before they left, he folded it and placed it on the wooden table opposite the sink. He then faced the sink itself and looked up into the mirror. He backed up in terror for a second before he realized it was him looking at him not some stranger.

His inky hair was now down to the shoulders, where they rested upon the white button-up shirt that completed the suit. His facial feature, now more defined, was somewhat hidden under the slight beard he know sported. Apparently his facial hair was black as his hair.

He could see the dress shirt stretching against his own swelled chest and he experimentally traced the crevice between his pecks that was visible through the shirt. His shoulders were lengthened from where they were usually, knowing he was going to be broad shouldered when he grew out, it wasn't as much a surprise.

He looked into the mirror, realizing that his head was somewhat cut off due to his height and he had to bend down to see himself fully.

"Fuck me."

Harry couldn't believe it. He couldn't believe this man in the mirror was him. True, it did resemble him somewhat, but it was still a drastic difference from only a day ago.

He steadied himself against the counter and hung his head while he took in calming breaths. He looked up again into his own green eyes and stood there for what seemed like hours trying to come to terms with everything.

Shaking his head and letting out a breath of air he didn't realize he was holding, he stood up again to his full height. Deciding to just get it over with and shower, he started unbuttoning his shirt the rest of the way and stopped to pull the excess from where it was tucked. He finished unbuttoning it fully and let the cloth hang open over his torso.

"Screw it."

He pulled his arms out of the sleeves, having to fight with the buttoned cuffs, and threw the shirt haphazardly on top of the jacket behind him and turned around to the mirror once again.

Harry gave a dry chuckle at what he was seeing. _'I look like a bloody Olympic athlete.'_

His pecks were defined more than they ever were. He could clearly see the definition that separated them from his abdomen in a way it never did. It usually was a smooth plane leading down to his trousers that he was used to. He knew he wasn't as scrawny as he was at the beginning of his Hogwart's schooling thanks to Quidditch helping him fill out a little.

_'But this is ridiculous,'_ he finished his thoughts.

"I even have abdominal muscles, for Christ's sake."

Regardless of his own disbelief, there they were. He ran his right hand over his now defined stomach as if to make sure the mirror wasn't an illusion.

It wasn't.

The ridges of definition beneath his fingers were hard just like his chest was. Even his arms were muscles and he could seem them pumping with every move he made.

Blowing out a indifferent huff of air, he moved to the buckle on his trousers where the short hairs on his stomach trailed down. He was about to unbuckle himself when a pounding on the door caught his attention.

"Boy! Get your freakish ass out here, right now!"

He rolled his eyes, figuring his bloated cousin ran straight to his parents.

Harry yanked the door open and stared down at his now relatively short, yet still huge uncle.

"What is it, _Uncle_?" he drew out the last word dispassionately.

Vernon eyed his now tall and lithely muscled nephew with dawning horror.

"What did you do to yourself! I told you no freakishness in this house! I won't stand for it!"

To Harry, it took all he had not to laugh in his uncle's face. He really tried. He lost that battle when a chuckle broke through his lips.

"What's so funny, freak?" Vernon snapped, his face turning a dull red.

"Nothing. This is what I would look like if you took care of me, like _normal _people. My magic got...upset of the mistreatment you caused when I was younger and it took it upon itself to mend the damage you caused. How does it feel, to be the freaks of the society, uncle? Knowing, if people knew what you done to me when I was younger, you'd be treated like a leper and shunned?"

"How dare you! We took you in and fed your ungrateful ass, then you go ahead and call us the freaks even though you are the one who is abnormal!"

"Because it's fucking true, you fat irrelevant worm!" Harry roared, now mere inches away from Vernon's face. Vernon didn't even see the movement till he was in his face. He was now realizing that he was the small one in the house, he couldn't throw his weight around any longer.

"I suggest you go back to your room. I suggest you live the rest of your pathetic life never talking to me again. Don't even look my direction. But know this, Vernon Dursley, you are nothing. You are beneath the rest of humanity as a disease, dwelling in the same space as rapists and murderers. You are a useless sack of meat that has no purpose and thus is irrelevant to the human species as a whole."

Vernon's face was white as a sheet. He was never talked to like this before. It was a judgment of himself and his little nephew was the jury. He couldn't argue, his brain couldn't function. He felt a slight dampness in the front of his night clothes.

Harry caught the musky scent of urine and glanced down. He gave a disgusted scowl and calmly said, "I suggest you go back to your room now, Vernon."

Uncle Vernon nodded his head mutely and retreated to his bedroom, his gaze vacant.

Harry looked down the hall after him and saw the retreating horrified faces of his relatives. He shook his head sadly, and backed into the bathroom and closed the door behind him.

He numbly put the toilet lid down and cradled his face in his hands. His little torrent at his uncle was all the things left unsaid throughout the years. The emotions suppressed through his young live bellowing out of the dark parts of his mind. His new mental capabilities making him hyper aware of everything that he was feeling. The most of which was revulsion. Not at the people he called relatives, but at himself. But revulsion at himself, for standing down for so long.

He took all the heat, all the blame. Never saying anything and thus his esteem was stunted. No confidence in his actions caused his friends to be hurt during school.

He didn't realize he was sobbing till he pulled his hands back.

He looked at the small cupboard door across from him and sniffled back the mucus building up in his nostrils. He just starred at the door till his emotions once more were gone and his impassive facade put back into place. The tears were still running down his cheeks because he allowed himself to do this.

The tears were his right to bear. Harry deserved to cry for his lost childhood. For all the torment he allowed to come down on him. He placed his elbows on his knees and leaned forwards, hanging his head.

"No more."

That whispered sentence was repeated periodically for the next few minutes while he sat there. His mind blank except for the expulsion of the pain he suffered through.

Deciding he enough of the sitting around and pitying himself, he decided to actually take a shower. He stood up and unbuckled the leather belt and whipped it off and hung it up by the metal buckle on the hook of the bathroom door. He undid the front and slid them down and he idly noticed the muscles of his legs straining when he raised them to remove the leggings of the trousers.

The raven haired man turned towards the shower and pulled back the curtain to the left by the toilet and turned on the shower to where he liked it.

He stepped back and suddenly apprehension filled him. He glanced down at his crotch and slightly worried. Every male has that inbred fear of anything untoward happening to his bits. _'What if the change...er, did something to it.'_

He gave a short bark of laughter of incredulity at his own stupidity. "Here I am, with a homicidal Dark Lord after me, and I'm worried about my bits."

Shaking his head ruefully, he slipped the fingers of his hands on the waistband and pulled them down in a quick swipe. He stood up without glancing down at himself and walked over to check the water temperature.

Seeing as it was a perfect temperature, he moved to the right to enter the shower stall.

* * *

Gabriel reappeared exactly where he left from in front of the clothes rack.

He looked around, not seeing his young charge and was about to ask Hedwig where he was. Not thinking it took _that _long for a guy to shower, he was naturally curious.

His mouth was open about to question her when he heard the unmistakeable voice of Harry's panicked yelling from the direction of the hallway.

"What the hell!"

Going on instinct he was trained into, he tore to the door and literally ripped it open, the metal of the frame holding the door latch flew into Harry's room with a bit of the wood, too.

He stomped into the hall and looked for him, noticing the closed door to the bathroom where steam was softly bellowing out under the door.

"Harry?"

He looked to his right and saw the cousin looking at him in confusion.

"Crap."

He waved his his right arms in a clockwise circular motion and Dudley's face slackened for a moment before he turned and walked back into his room.

Now that was handled, he went to the bathroom door and open the door, with a little less enthusiasm.

He looked down to see the sprawled form of Harry Potter half way out of shower from where he obviously fell.

"Er, is everything all right?"

Harry's head snapped up in shock and his face, already red from the hot water, flushed an even deeper red.

"Uh, yeah. I was just...erm, surprised."

"About what? I thought you were attacked!" He exclaimed while diverting his eyes from Harry's naked body.

"I...er...um, I dropped the soap on my foot."

"There isn't any bars of soap in there! Just tell me what so I can remove myself from this room."

Harry looked down from where he was still slightly draped over the showers ledge.

"I was surprised by...a certain change of my anatomy."

"What change...oh. Oh!"

It didn't help that at this point when Gabriel broke into side grabbing laughter. Harry could only glare at the white tile flooring of the bathroom.

"If you are quite done laughing at my expense, could I please finish?"

Gabriel could only wave his hand while still laughing and made his way out of the bathroom.

"And close the damn door!"

Gabriel, still laughing, turned slightly and caught the door handle and closed the door.

He could still hear him laughing from inside the bathroom. Harry muttered some unsavory words about Gabriel while he made his way back to a standing position.

Harry sighed at the way his life had changed and stepped back into the pounding waves of the shower. He placed his long arms on either side of the shower head and bowed his head to let the water beat against his wild hair. Of course, with his head aimed down, he saw the reason why he was surprised in the first place.

"It's all your fault you know."

* * *

Thirty minutes later, a damp Harry with a white towel wrapped around his waist, walked back into his room clutching his new clothes he discarded. He noticed Gabriel still chuckling slight over by the desk while flipping through a book he never seen before. If he had to guess, it came from one of his expanded pockets.

"So, what did you find out?"

"Finally, you took your sweet time didn't you?"

"I am moving passed that horrible moment of my life and into the future. Just tell me what you found out back at HQ?"

Gabriel shook his head while chuckling again. "Alright, sourpuss. Apparently, the magical nexus' of this Earth is shifting. All of them."

"What! Isn't that a bad thing?"

"Hold on, don't panic just yet. According to the Intel Department, they are shifting back to their origin."

"Origin? Stop stalling and just tell me, Gabriel. I am not in the mood for the carrot and stick routine."

Gabriel gave an immature pout, but continued anyways. "It looks like the elves of this reality are, lack for a better word, returning. Our department says that their elf liaison to this reality is both hyped and bummed about it. Excited because it is an unparalleled event across all known realities, and bummed because he isn't here to experience it. It's going to get mighty interesting around here in a few months."

"The elves are returning? Why? I thought they left to leave us to mind ourselves?"

"The liaison couldn't say the exact reasoning for their return, but it does have something to do with rise of darkness the past few decades. Which, the more I looked into it, makes sense. There is more dark activity in this reality, that the rest."

"How so?"

"Normally, dark wizardry will become prominent even few centuries. Not a constant pulse like this reality. It's a sign, to those who know where to look, about the changing times. Things are brewing and not all of them are good."

Harry was still standing there with a towel wrapped around him with a shocked look upon his face. _'What's so different in this one that would make the elves want to come back, after they declared us able?'_

"Your face tells me what's on your mind. The truth of the matter is, we don't know. We, the angels that is, can't really monitor elves successfully. Their realm is separate from yours somewhat, and we only monitor the Earthen realm. We have no cause to watch over the elves, nor a reason to. They can handle themselves without our interference."

Harry nodded at the sound reasoning. He walked over to the little dresser and dropped his clothing on to its surface and began searching for his old gray sweatpants to be comfortable in.

He didn't feel particularly inclined to lounge around in only a towel. Especially after the embarrassing moment he shared with Gabriel in the bathroom.

After a few seconds search, he found pants he needed. "Turn around please."

Gabriel, not wanting to see more than he already did, no matter how funny, turned like he was asked.

After a few moments where the only sound was shuffling of clothing, Harry spoke again, "Alright, you're good."

"Thank god. Moving on, The magical nexus' are moving towards a point, the origin, which will allow the elves to once more transverse to this realm. The nexus, when they made it was broken into thirteen pieces and spread across the globe. Think of them as part of a broke key, once whole, they will be able to unlock the door."

"Well when you put it that way, it makes more sense. So them putting down ley-lines was just a coverup so one day they could return?"

Gabriel shook his head negatively. "No, it's nothing sinister. The ley-lines _were _made for the magically inclined. The key was just a bonus in their favor. Not a bad trade off, in my opinion."

Harry once more nodded, this time in acceptance. He didn't know what it was, his gut was telling him something was coming, and it wasn't good.

The sweatpants and a white undershirt now donned, he went back to the bed and laid down with a content sigh.

"Good idea, Harry. Why don't you get some sleep and when you wake up, I'll return. I'm going to go investigate whatever is going on."

"Alright, have fun."

Gabriel stopped after he threw on his jacket again and he slapped his forehead with his right hand.

"Damn, I almost forgot. Your sleep schedule is going to short. Thanks to the new brain processes, you don't need as much and as long REM sleep. You'll sleep about...four hours. You should wake up fully rested."

"Oh, well that's...nice?"

His newly appointed mentor gave a deep chuckle and nodded.

"It is, Voldemort should have a harder time inflicting visions to you through your scar. Less headaches. See? Being around me is a good thing! Now only if I could get you to believe that," he trailed off with a mock pout and crossed his arms.

"You are, by far, the weirdest person I've ever met Gabriel. And you don't fit the picture of being a guardian angel that well either."

"Oh hush before I ground you. I'm going to be off now, sleep good."

And with that and a final over-exaggerated wink, Gabriel twisted the silver ring once more and ceased to exist on Earth for the time being.

Harry leaned his head back against the pillow once more and starred up at the ceiling, feeling the tendrils of exhaustion start to take him under.

He gave a final thought before he succumbed, _'Not a bad way to spend a day, if I do say so myself.'_

* * *

A chestnut brunette was leaning against a comfortable looking beige couch while watching the television. Usually Hermione didn't indulge watching the television, preferring the company of books. But here she was because her thoughts were once again racing a mile a minute over the nervous clenching her stomach was doing.

_'Why doesn't it just stop already, it's not like there is anything coming - .'_

"Oh!"

_'How could she be so stupid! She was going to see Harry soon, it all made sense now.'_ It still didn't explain the weird pseudo-pains she was getting though.

Hermione was never the one to expound upon the emotional side of her self. She was logical, a creature of rationality. Emotions...confused things. So with her limited knowledge of her own feelings, she tried to figure out what her body was obviously trying to tell her.

Nibbling on the left portion of her bottom lip, she wrapped her arms around her knees. This was her hard thinking stance. Arithmancy didn't even cause her to revert to this position of thinking. So she sat there, blankly looking at the television, not really paying attention to the nature channel explaining the culture of animals in the rain forests.

She decided to delve into her more inappropriate thoughts trying to figure out the answers. She always thought Harry was attractive, despite being a bit on the short side. He was what all men should strive to be, in her honest opinion. Harry just had a...rightness about him. She knew he had his faults, everyone does. But they were so miniscule to her, that they didn't matter.

So she sat some more. Pouring over detail after tiny detail over their relationship together. The other boys around her seemed dim in comparison to her best friend. Watching him do stupid, suicidal maneuvers on his Firebolt during games. Seeing his face light up when he finally cracked a question that had him stumped for ages.

Then the obvious hit her.

Her breathing stopped and her eyes widened into comical proportions.

"It couldn't be..."

But it obviously was.

She fancied Harry Potter, her best friend, and she now just realized it.

Hermione summed it up eloquently.

"Shit."


	6. Chapter 6: From Odd to Strange

**A/N:** Here's an update, Merry Christmas. If you celebrate other religious holidays during this month, you have my thanks for reading the story. A few things I'd like to clear up before we get into it though. The concept of the ley-lines is an original one. If there is a story that has this idea already, I'm sorry and I mean no disrespect by using this. I've never come across one that uses this idea. Besides that, I thought they would explain certain things about the magical world a little better and support some of the plans I have for this story. Anyways, on to the story! Please read and review, if you would.

**A/N-2: **Oh, there is a sensitive subject that will be in the earlier part of this chapter. I don't want to ruin anything, so I'll explain it at the end in an authors note.

_Standard disclaimers apply_

**From Odd to Strange**_  
_

The night was cool and silent in the suburbia that was Privet Drive. It was nearing three-thirty in the morning so it wasn't particularly unusual to be this quiet. All was well for now, in the house that Harry Potter resided in.

Harry, laying as still as the dead, suddenly shot up into a sitting position with eyes frantically taking in his surroundings. _'Hedwig: check. Gabriel still gone: check. Wide awake at three in the bloody morning: check.'_

He took a deep breath to reign in his slight panic and racing mind, then blew it out in a silent huff. Hedwig, from her perch by the window, gave him a glance and a quick hoot.

"I'm fine, Hedwig. I guess Gabriel wasn't joking about the four hour sleeping cycle. This will take a bit to get used to."

Ignoring the snuffling Hedwig was doing, _'Owls can laugh?'_, he swung his legs, still in the sweatpants, over the edge of his bed. He propped his elbows on the end of his knees and starred out the window.

So many things changed for him in the past day. _'Amazing that all that happened in a span of less than a full day.'_

And it was true. Harry could see the world around him like never before. He felt as if he had been in a daze his whole life to only now open his eyes fully. It wasn't upsetting, funnily enough, just odd. Things were now changing again, with the arrival of the elves soon coming. For better or worse, Harry didn't know.

"Gabriel been back yet, girl?" He asked, turning his head slightly to the left to gaze at his beautiful snowy white owl.

Hedwig gave a short bark from where her head was nestled under her left wing. _'Definitely means no,' _he concluded.

Deciding to get his day started, he stood up slowly as to not cause vertigo. His new height was definitely going to take a bit to get used to. He went over to his dresser on the left and proceeded to dig around for his toiletry bag.

"Where are you, you son-of-a-...Gotcha!" Wielding the bag in front of his face, glaring at it.

Putting the bag under his left armpit, he grabbed a new pair of dark-gray trousers and a white dress shirt from the bags he got yesterday. He shuffled over to the door and walked directly across to the bathroom. _'Thank god they stopped eating curry.'_

Moving that random, disturbing thought to the waste bin of his mind, he dumped his clothing on the same wooden table from last night and turned once more towards the mirror. This time he didn't flinch at the image, thinking it a stranger. _'That will take a bit to get accustomed to as well.'_

Seeing his bearded visage, he concluded a shave was in order. Reaching behind him, he grabbed the toiletry bag and retrieved his new enchanted straight razor Sirius gave him last Christmas.

"Let's not slit our own throat now, Potter."

Lathering up with the Edwin Jagger cream and brush, he was idly eyeing the dark hair that now cascaded down his back and over his shoulders. _'What to do with you...'_

He straightened back up and placed the brush back in the pestle he brought the razor to his face and started the tedious task of shaving.

Fifteen minutes later found a clean shaven Harry splashing water over his face to rid himself of the left over shaving cream. Looking into the mirror once more, he rubbed his left hand over his high cheekbones down to his chin.

"Not bad," he muttered with a wry smirk. He dropped his hand back to his side and looked his hair over. Standing up, the hair hung down past his shoulders and the usual wild appearance was replaced with straightness. All in all, to Harry, it didn't look horrible but it would look odd with a suited figure.

Remembering the straight razor from Sirius, he picked it up and twirled it, while closed, between his fingers. He stopped and placed it upon the sink counter and reached up to sweep his hair behind his head. He gripped the mock ponytail in his hand and slid it down till there was only just an inch of hair sticking out the end of his palm, he picked up the razor with his right hand and flicked it open with a jerk.

Harry paused and looked up at his double in the mirror. He smirked and thought, _'Gabriel is going to kill me,'_ with a chuckle that looked with him clutching his long hair behind him and a razor in the other hand.

He brought the blade up behind him and rested the side of it against his left hands pinky. Figuring that there was no back out, he swiped the blade down and to the side, the hair still attached to his head falling to hand a good measure above his shoulders. The makeshift ponytail still clutched in his hand was brought to the sink where he laid it down.

The razor was snapped closed and tossed into the bag with the enchanted brush that banished the excess cream from both the brush and pestle.

"Not bad, once again."

The hair, still long, was laying slightly straight this time, with only a few hairs curling up at the end. He collected some water in his hand and brought it up to his hair to dampen it. Once it was maneuverable, he flipped the hair behind his head where it laid straight. Unlike the Slytherin known as Draco Malfoy, his hair didn't give the appearance of being slicked back with a paste or gel, it laid there naturally and comfortably.

His hair that sits above his sideburns fell down so that they laid down in a pointed fashion but not really long enough to be considered odd looking. In fact, Harry was quite smitten with the look it gave him.

_'I do look good, if I do say so myself.'_

Harry shook his head to reconfigure his hair back to laying down in front of his eyes and prepped to take a shower by turning on the hot water. He stripped off his white night shirt and tossed it onto the floor by the door and pulled down his sweatpants enough to step out of them.

"Bugger."

His new 'enhancement' was laying there and Harry was still confounded about it. _'It's never been that big before...'_ was the only thing he could think about when it came to _it. _Not necessarily true as his mind was pulling up all known topics that could be related to male anatomy that he might of skimmed across randomly.

"I swear, if I had the inkling to, I could club someone with this thing." Shaking his head ruefully, he moved into the shower and stepped under the warm water descending on him.

Now, it would have all gone normally if it weren't for the fact that a certain part of his anatomy decided now was a good time for it to be noticed. Raising a eyebrow at the strange growth going on he decided to investigate. By investigate, Harry reasoned that taking it in hand and inspecting the occurrence.

Ten minutes later, Harry stood under the shower breathing heavily and embarrassed at what he had just done. His new rationalizing brain was pouring over the little known sexual facts that he came across. Seamus in the dormitory going on about one of his latest conquests with a Hufflepuff, and Cho kissing him while crying while her hands went around his neck was the only practical experience he had on the matter.

The theoretical experience was pulling up the talk during his primary years where a male teacher uncomfortable described the essentials of sexual reproduction. Masturbation was a topic that was covered but he just now remembered it when he was actively trying to remember it.

"Ah." He said aloud, while still breathing heavily, but not as harsh a few moments ago.

He went about the usual routine of being in the shower while pondering over things.

Thirty minutes passed while he finished his shower, and he picked up his clothing and toiletry bag and made it back to the room with a faint blush to his face. Opening the door and turning to close it, he didn't notice Gabriel leaning back in the single wooden chair at his desk.

"Hey there, Champ."

Harry gave a startled jump and the items he was holding went flying in different directions. He later thanked the deities that dressed before he came back to his room.

"Jesus, Gabriel, you almost gave me a heart attack."

With a humored smirk, Gabriel let the chair fall back on all legs with a soft knock on the floor and propped his face upon his arm. "It's not my fault you were blind to the world when you walked in. What were you thinking about that's got you blushing like a school girl?"

Harry turned his face to dodge looking at Gabriel in the eye and replied, "Oh, not much, just things."

"Come on, spit it out."

"Er, I'd rather not. I'm sure you would be thanking me for not telling you if you knew."

Now thoroughly confused, Gabriel cocked his head slightly. "Now you can't leave me hanging after saying something like that. Did you accidentally catch your Aunt in the shower or something?"

The freshly showered Harry gave a mock gag at the image, "Oh god, thanks for that spectacular imagery."

Gabriel gave guffaw, "You're very welcome, my friend. Now tell me the real reason before I embarrass you some more."

Harry looked around for a quick exit before he sighed in resignation, he gave up. "I was in the shower and I had a...er...reaction of sorts."

"What do you mean 'reaction'? To what...oh god...you didn't?"

With a defeated sigh, Harry squatted to pick up his thrown property. "Yeah, I told you that you wouldn't want to know."

"You didn't tell me it would be about that!"

"Gabriel, replay what you just said and tell me that it made any kind of sense."

"Fine, I see your point. I don't see why you are blushing about it, it should be kind of nonchalant by now, right?"

Looking understandably uncomfortable about the subject matter, Harry put his night clothes back in the dresser along with his bag. He stalled before going back to his bed to sit down.

"Gabriel, I've never done it before. Can we please talk about something else?"

"Wait, are you telling me, a fifteen – almost sixteen year old Harry Potter has never played pocket pool?"

"Never."

Gabriel leaned back in his chair with his arms crossed while looking lost in thought with his eyebrows furrowed. He glanced back up at Harry's face and asked, "Why? I mean, being surrounded by young ladies at that school should supply more than enough...Oh!"

"What?" Harry inquired with a raised eyebrow.

"It's the new biological functions of your body; I can't believe I didn't see it sooner. See, with all the malnutrition you underwent by your 'loving' relatives, you were aging slower than normal. It explains the muted bodily growth, the lack of numerous sexual desires, and the need to suddenly take things in hand, as it were."

"Crude, but it makes sense. I was kind of...bollocks...freaked out about it because I never had the urge to do it before. I mean, hell, I only had The Talk when I was like nine back in primary. They didn't cover this shite."

"Yeah, sorry about that. I should have explained about the new bodily reactions to stimulants now that your nervous system and ecetera have been restarted with interest. But, I am in no way in hell giving The Talk to my alternate self. You can go to the fonging library and soak up all the smutty details with that new brain of yours."

Laughing despite the awkwardness, Harry shook his head and stood up to feed Hedwig some owl treats. "Alright, I'll do that. I appreciate you not disturbing me any further than you already have."

Gabriel stood up and stretched his back to pop his back and it gave a few satisfying _cracks _along with a relieved sigh from him. He slouched forward for a moment then straightened before walking to the window beside Harry who was petting Hedwig while staring out into the darkness of the early morning.

"Looks like it's going to rain again," Harry spoke up, then inhaled through his nose, "smells like it, too. So what did you find out about the elves?"

Gabriel glanced up towards the cloudy overcast, trying to see the moon through the cover. "It's a strange occurrence. The Elf Liaison in mum on it, and like I've said, we don't monitor their realm. We are strictly Earthbound in our watching. What we do know is this: the door is in the northern Atlantic Ocean and they will be arriving October the fifth, nineteen-ninety-six. Gives us a couple of months to prepare for the inevitable shit storm."

"You think they will be causing problems?"

"Not really, they never really had any qualms with humans. Of course there were a few issues but those were resolved before they left. We are just curious as to why they are returning to _reality _and not the others. What's so different about this one? It's quite vexing."

"It really is and I didn't even know about elves till you told me. You think they could be in trouble in their own realm?"

Drumming his fingers where he had his left arm pitched against the window frame, Gabriel replied absentmindedly, "Possibly, but the elves are ferociously strong. Not many things could trouble the elves to cause them to return."

Harry straightened up from in front of Hedwig's perch, his eyes never leaving the sky. "It matters not right now, Gabe. Let's just focus on your job till things come to the fore."

Gabriel gave a chuckle. "Yes, Master Potter. To the job!"

"Oh shut it, you over-dramatic twit."

"I never should have messed with your brain. You are most assuredly turning into a killjoy."

Harry looked at Gabriel and blew him a raspberry with his tongue and leaned over to clean out Hedwig's perch from the waste.

Noticing what Harry was about to do, Gabriel placed a hand on Harry's shoulder and requested, "Wait. This will be a good exercise for Sonancy. Ask Hedwig to move over to your bed in case this goes...poorly."

"We're going to practice now? I didn't think I could do magic outside of school till I'm seventeen?"

"Yes to the first question, and the second one is a bit complicated to answer. They trace focused magic through a wand but wandless, or in this case, unfocused magic is untraceable."

"But when Dobby, a house elf who visited me, did magic to levitate a cake, I got accused of doing magic."

"Ah, house elves are curious little buggers. They don't use magic traditionally like humans do. They use magic from others and locations to do their bidding. So when he levitated the cake, he was effectively channeling your excess magic through your wand and to do his will. Nifty trick, but troublesome for others, like in your case."

Looking quite impressed, despite being blamed for the magic usage, Harry just nodded in agreement. Harry then turned to look at Hedwig and asked, "Hey girl, could you move to my bed, I don't want to accidentally harm you."

Hedwig looked up at, she hooted in acquiescence before completely ignoring his "thanks" and took off to the bed and turned around to face the wall.

"I think she is still mad at me for the prank I pulled."

Puzzled, Gabriel asked, "What prank? Wait, you pranked your familiar?"

"Yeah, it was harmless though. I gave her some of the chicken yesterday. I told her that chicken was a bird, and-"

That was as far as he got because Gabriel doubled over laughing. He continued laughing when he looked over to the appalled look Hedwig was giving him.

"You...you told her it was a bird...," after that, Harry couldn't understand anything because it was broken up between Gabriel's uproarious laughter and titters.

"Yeah, I thought it was funny until Hedwig looked at me with murder in her eyes. I didn't think she'd take it so seriously."

Finally getting his laughter under control, Gabriel plopped down into the chair. "Of course she is, you boob. Telling her that she is effectively enjoying the perks of cannibalism must of puffed her feathers up in quite a state. I'd check your bed for droppings later, if I were you. Now go apologize, Hedwig didn't deserve that."

Harry sighed and nodded, he walked over to Hedwig and softly stroked her feathers in a placating manner. "Hedwig, I'm sorry I pranked you. It was wrong of me and I promise not to ever do it again."

Apparently, that was all Hedwig needed because she turned around rather quickly despite standing on the lumpy bed. Once she was turned around, she used her wings to hit each side of his head and hooted mirthfully.

Stunned, Harry uttered, "I think Hedwig just pranked me..."

Of course, Gabriel barked out a laugh and leaned back in his chair looking smug. "Yep, Hedwig is a devious little minx. We planned it before you got back, she is quite a character."

"You're evil."

"No, I'm an opportunist."

"Same thing," Harry snarked.

"Touche."

Harry gave a light chuckle and scratched under Hedwig's beak before standing up and returning to her perch to wait for his instructions.

Nodding with a smile, Gabriel approached. "Alright. The first thing you'll have to work on is your whistling. I want you to give me a flat note and hold it."

Harry pursed his lips and blew out air going for a solid, flat sounding tone.

Gabriel interjected while Harry was still blowing, "A little lower."

Complying, Harry softened the pace of wind being pushed out and smoothed the rhythm out. Gabriel nodded and motioned with his hand to stop.

"Good, now I want you focus on the waste in the perch. I want you to see the waste disappearing. You then need to urge your magic to come to the fore of your conscious so that you can feel it."

This took a bit more time, seeing as this was Harry's first attempt at such a thing. He could whistle since he was five, feeling and urging his magic was something new.

Harry searched for that feeling he got every time he used a bit of magic, trying to pinpoint the origin. Screwing up his face in concentration, he tensed up his gut as something began to _roll _in his stomach, or that's what it felt like to him. The feeling only grew as the more he focused on it and soon the feeling was stretched to his chest.

He stopped suddenly as he felt something spark in his chest. It was akin to being shocked due to static electricity after walking around all day in heavy woolen clothing.

Harry looked up to Gabriel to see he was smiling broadly.

"Brilliant! You got that faster than I thought you would. That feeling is magic being channeled through what the Hindu's call the manipura of your soul. What you need to learn is how to call upon it at will instead of relying on your wand to draw it forth."

Harry nodded and tried to call up the feeling again, but this time faster.

Gabriel just watched, not verbalizing his awe at how quickly this Harry was channeling his magic. He was silently grateful that Harry had his eye's closed in concentration and thus couldn't see Gabriel's wide eyes.

"Alright, I think you got that part down. Now, what we need to work on is joining the sound, magic, and the intent. Concentrate on the waste in her perch and when you feel you got it, place your hand palm down above it and push down. Cut off whistling when you stop the downward push of your hand."

"Gotcha."

Harry first brought that feeling of magic up to his chest again where he could feel the sparking begin. It was irregularly pulsing along with his strained breathing, and Harry thought_ 'How am I going to whistle while my breathing is strained...'_

While trying to hold onto the feeling in his chest, he slowed his breathing down, maintaining the sparking. It was probably the hardest thing he had ever done.

Shakily bringing his hand up to hover over Hedwig's carrier, he pursed his lips to begin whistling. He thought of what he wanted the waste to do. He wanted the waste to dissolve into nothingness. Leave not a trace. Harry had the image of the mess being there then quickly _melting _away into the ether.

Harry pushed the air out of his lungs through his lips and a shaky note escaped him.

"Steady the note, Harry. You can do this."

He pushed lighter, making the tone smooth. He steadied his breathing to remove the slight warble it was making.

Wanting to see if this worked, Harry opened his eyes, concentrating on not losing the magic he was manipulating. With a swift motion he pushed down with his hand and stopped both the movement and the whistle abruptly.

Gabriel's face blossomed a joyous smile when before both their eyes, Hedwig's perch slowly divested itself of her waste. It was only a matter of seconds before it was clean as the day Harry bought it.

A triumphant shout from Harry caused Gabriel to pump his fist into the air. "Yes! I knew you could get it on your first try. Hell, not even I could do that on my first try."

"Really?" Harry asked with a bemused expression.

"Yeah, I mean, I had to evaporate water my first time and it took me a good five tries. You just did it with rudimentary instructions and a loose understanding! Remarkable..."

Harry ducked his head where a slight coloring could be seen blooming on his neck and cheeks.

"Don't be embarrassed by praise that is well earned, Harry. Take pride in your accomplishments. Especially this one!" Gabriel exclaimed with a hearty back slap on Harry's back.

"I'll admit that I do catch onto magic quickly. Even if I don't have the theory down on spells, I can produce results practically if I try them if I know the desired result."

Startled, Gabriel looked at Harry as if he had grown another head. "That shouldn't be possible. You have to understand the way magic works and forms for you to be able to create results. Has anything else like this happened before?"

Thinking for a moment, Harry replied while still in thought. "During my third year at Hogwarts, Professor Lupin taught me the Patronus Charm. My first try, I produced a smog that deflected a proxy-Dementor long enough for it to be subdued."

His only reply was the gaping mouth of his Guardian.

"What?"

"'What', he asks! That should have been impossible, especially for a thirteen year old you. The Patronus is special as it pulls on the souls cadence with your emotions. You needed to study this and meditate on aligning your emotions to your memories and such. What you are telling me is that you skipped all that and basically commanded magic to produce the Patronus."

"Er, commanding is a little harsh, I'd say I _willed _it to happen. I needed it to happen, so I could better protect myself and my friends."

Gabriel shook his head and sat down heavily onto the chair. "Harry, this is...big...nothing like this has happened in other realities. Quite frankly, I don't know what to think of this. Your connection with magic is daunting, especially if you can will it to do what you need."

"I'm nothing remarkable, Gabriel. True, Lupin and the others were blown away with my ability to produce one, but still – it can't be _that _big of a deal."

Giving a dry laugh, Gabriel continued with a raised hand to stall Harry's modesty. "Harry, what did I say about taking pride in your work. Do so. Now, it's a big deal because humans aren't supposed to do what you are doing. Our bodies aren't made to function that way. But if this is true, your channeling reaction is exponentially vaster than normal."

"Is it a bad thing?" Harry asked, becoming slightly panicked while his mind raced for reasons for another one of his anomalies.

"Bad thing? No. Dangerous? Possibly. Your emotions are tied to your magic and will thus act accordingly if you don't control your emotions. With your mind opened up now, it will help control them, but you will need to keep an eye out for when it starts to bleed over into your intent based magic."

Worried, but less so than before Gabriel explained it, Harry nodded hesitantly.

"Alright, let's move on. We'll work on Sonancy some more later, I just wanted to see what you could do. We'll pick it up later tonight after we lay some groundwork down for our road trip and what you are going to be doing this year."

"Sounds good. So, where are you planning on dragging me on this road trip of yours?"

Gabriel chuckled under his breath, "We will be going further into Europe. I want to eventually make our way down to Italy and Greece to acquire some items that will come in handy."

"Why Italy and Greece?"

"Do you know any mythology and history of them?"

"A little bit, like Zeus and Apollo from their old religion. Nothing on Italy, except for Rome and the Vatican are there."

"That's what I figured," Gabriel snorted, "Well, what you might not know is that Greece and Italy has the richest and most expansive history when it comes to magic. Like where the mundanes would consider Zeus a god, wizarding kind can read _and _see these so called gods in the flesh. They weren't gods like you might think, they were humans, just extraordinarily gifted wizards and witches of long ago."

"Well shit."

Gabriel gave a laugh at the expression of shock on Harry's face.

"Yeah, a lot of the fairy-tale's and myths have groundings in truth. Magic pops up in the mundane world more than you'd think."

"Any more mind blowing facts you need to tell me? I don't think my mind can think any faster than it already is. It's giving me a headache."

Wincing a bit, Gabriel apologized. "Sorry about that, forgot you are still assimilating with the new upgrade. No more new and shiny things for now, but when we get there, I'll fill your brain up till it's fit to burst."

Gabriel just gave a cheeky smile while Harry rolled his eyes.

"Ha-bloody-ha. Now what is this equipment we will be needing there?"

"Now now, Harry, don't get too far ahead of yourself. That will come later, we will first be heading to France for you to check out the sights and such. This road trip is meant to be fun for you, not an expedition."

"Fine. I'm just not used to have recreational fun."

"I know, that's why we're doing this. I personally like to see what things are different between realities. Especially restaurants. God, I can't wait to get to Italy. We are _definitely _going to Bologna."

Chuckling at Gabriel's obsession with food, Harry sat down on his bed again while gently picking up Hedwig for her to stand on his left knee.

For the next six hours, Gabriel detailed the route they would be taking through Eastern-Europe. They stopped at ten-thirteen when Harry's stomach gave a startling rumble. Amazed, Harry realized that the sun came up and was approaching the afternoon and he didn't even notice while they were planning.

Well, Gabriel was planning and Harry was just nodding, soaking up the details.

Harry stood up from where he was over at the window sill so he could look at the map of Europe and Asia that Gabriel was previously trekking across, explaining the spots. He gave a pleasing stretch and looked out the window to see while the sun was visible, rain was slightly falling on the neighborhood.

Gabriel joined him at the window and breathed in deeply to take in the smells of the light rain. "Well, before we eat, we got one more important thing to cover: transportation. Anything you want to use in particular?"

Harry shrugged his shoulders, "How about a car or something?"

Gabriel gave a "Ha!" and continued with a mock drawl with a slight overtone of superiority. "I will not be seen riding around in a device those plebians use called 'cars'."

"Okay, moneybags, what do you suggest?"

This gave Gabriel pause for a second. Then a few more seconds while he began to pace back and forth.

"Got it! We could go acquire some motorbikes. I haven't driven one in what seems like ages. Probably has been ages, since time doesn't really matter where I'm from." Harry's twin laughed a bit at his own joke before he noticed Harry's look of confusion.

"What?"

"Why do you have that face on for? What's wrong with bikes?"

"Seeing as I've never drove one before, that could be a problem."

Nodding, Gabriel proclaimed, "Well, seeing as we won't really be driving them on roads as we can make them fly, you will be safe."

"Still, we will have to land and drive once we hit the ground. I like the way my face is arranged as it is, thanks."

"Oh stop whining. They aren't that hard to drive. Plus, you pick things up quickly. You'll be good."

"Fine, where are we going to go get these miraculous flying motors?"

Gabriel gave a wide grin and practically ran over to the map he still had floating in the air. He slapped his right index finger over a spot in the United Kingdom. Harry squinted for a moment, then rolled his eyes and walked over to the map to get a better look.

"Bristol? Why Bristol?"

Still grinning like a loon, Gabriel explained. "Because, my naïve friend, Bristol has the best motorbike dealership on the Island. Fowlers has been there since the late twenty's, and they also provide services for the bikes. _Magical _services."

"Nice. We still need to go to Gringotts for me to get some money. How much do they usually cost?"

"Depends on the make and model, really. Let's see...you should be safe getting around ten-thousand euros. Wait...make that pounds, the euro isn't used here yet. Sorry."

"Euro?"

"I'll explain later. So, let's go get you some pocket change and head over to Bristol."

At this, Harry became excited, knowing they were going to utilize his now favorite way of traveling.

"Why do you look like you are the cat who got the canary?"

Blushing at being so transparent, Harry replied, "We get to use that method of travel again. What can I say; I really enjoy it."

"True, it is an amazing way to get from 'a' to 'b'. Elemental travel is one of the smoothest ways to go, not to mention looking pretty nifty. Only problem is, it's a bitch to get the hang of. If you mess up, you could seriously fong yourself."

"Fong?"

"Oh, it's another way for me to get my cursing quota in for the day without actually cursing."

"Let me guess, the wife gets on to you for cursing?"

Gabriel gave a laugh, "She does at that. She would smack my arm every time, if she was in hearing distance. This way, I get to keep my arms in a healthy shape, and she doesn't overexcite herself."

"Smooth."

"I thought so. Now, let's get to...Diagon Alley?"

"Yeah, it's called Diagon Alley. What else would it be called?"

"It's different sometimes. Two visit's ago, it was called Ulicorn Pass. Wizard's have an atrocious nack for naming things."

"What the hell is a Ulicorn?"

Gabriel looked at him like he was mentally challenged. "Harry, what other word is similar to Ulicorn?"

"Er...unicorn?"

"Yahtzee! Tell me a word that is similar to Diagon?"

This took a second for Harry to put together, even with his rationalizing ability being more than it was before. "Dragon?"

"Two for two, my man. Yeah, wizards like to think they are slick when naming places and things. Truthfully, they are rubbish at it. Hogwarts? Longbottom? Hell, even Voldemort's name is pretty lame if you know french."

"Fine, I get your point. Let's get to Gringotts, get some money, and get our bikes. Will I need to get you some money, too?"

"Nope. I'll be good. Don't worry."

Harry couldn't help but notice the devious look in Gabriel's eyes.

"Okay," he murmured while latching onto Gabriel's right shoulder this time.

Both Harry and Gabriel disappeared with a gust of wind from the room and into the early afternoon sky.

* * *

Despite the monumental discovery of her love for Harry, Hermione didn't let it bother her much. Well, she did have a ten minute panic attack after the realization hit, but that is beside the point.

Hermione had more important things on her mind at the moment. She was doing what she did best: worrying about Harry.

_'I can't help but think it was Harry last night in Downtown. Despite the...differences...my gut feeling is telling me it was him.' _She thought while she was pacing in her room.

Crookshanks was curled up on her comforter, lazily watching her as she paced on the plush carpet. Seeing a bit of loose string hanging from the window curtain by the bed, he decided to investigate that rather than his distraught caregiver.

"What could he have done to cause so much of a change?" She muttered under her breath, not even noticing Crookshanks swiping at the string.

Hearing a knock on the door, Hermione stopped her movement and went to door to see her mother on the other side, looking curious.

"Hermione, why have you stomping around in your room for the last half-hour?" Amelia asked with a wry grin, even though her eyes shown a hint of worry.

"Sorry, I thought you and dad left for the office already. I was thinking about those two men we saw yesterday. I don't know what it is, but something is telling me that the scruffy looking one was Harry."

Taking her daughters hand, Amelia led Hermione back into her room and sat down on the edge of the bed.

"Why is this bothering you so much? I don't mean to sound harsh, it's just curious."

Stopping her coming outburst of indignation after her mother assured her of her intention, she explained, "It's just a feeling. Like I need to go see him and make sure he is fine."

Light seemed to spark in her mother's eyes and Hermione asked, "What?"

"Oh, nothing...so what are you going to do?"

Deciding to ignore that peculiar look in her mother's eye for now, Hermione pondered for a short moment trying to decide what she should actually do, instead of just worrying.

"I think I am going to go surprise Harry."

"Today?"

"Yes, I think it will be good for the both of us. Give me some closure on the matter, and him getting to see his...friend."

Hermione noticed that look reenter her Amelia's eye for a second time. Her mother though, spoke up before she could question it.

"Okay, how do you plan on getting there? I can't drive you over there; I have to go to the practice for a late surgery."

"I'll just take the Knight Bus. It's a magical transport, Harry told me he used it in his third year. It is supposed to be very quick and cheap."

Her mother nodded and cautioned, "You sure it is safe?"

Hermione rolled her eyes. "Yes mum, it's perfectly safe. I'll go over there and see him for an hour or two and come back home."

Amelia looked into her daughter's gentle eyes for a second, then nodded, seemingly pleased with what she saw.

"Alright, make sure to give Harry our best."

* * *

Harry and Gabriel appeared in the shadowy corner of the alley that was the discreet entrance to Diagon Alley. Harry was sporting a gleeful expression, while Gabriel was just cackling like a hyena at his expression.

"You look like a kid who just got a new present."

"Oh shut it, I like the little things in life."

Gabriel just snorted and approached the entrance, as he got to the brick wall he turned back to Harry.

"What is the sequence?"

With the question, a crystal clear memory popped up into Harry's mind which showed Hagrid tapping a couple bricks with his neon-pink umbrella.

"Hm. This one," pointing to a brick near the middle, "and these two in rapid succession."

Gabriel nodded and tapped the aforementioned bricks with his right index finger. The bricks, as soon as he finished, started bending and folding into the bricks beside them and soon, the Alley was visible.

Harry gave a happy sigh, "Gods, I love magic."

Gabriel couldn't argue, Diagon Alley, even though ridiculously named, was a marvel of magical shopping. Shops selling strange exotic pets, shops selling wizard and witches robes, and other assorted magical items.

"Gringotts first?" Gabriel asked.

Harry nodded wordlessly and started heading towards to lopsided, yet gargantuan, building near the end of the Alley.

Sparse groups of wizards and witches would stop and stare at the two strange dressed men. Both seemingly looked to be twins, yet the obvious differences in the way they carried themselves and the clothing on their persons.

Noticing the attention, Harry whispered to Gabriel while they were passing Florean Fortescue's Ice Cream Parlour.

"Gabe, shouldn't you change your appearance? I mean, it'll be kind of odd for me to have a twin all of sudden once people realize that I'm Harry Potter."

"You have a point there."

Gabriel stopped and grasped Harry's elbow and dragged them to the left of the Alley and into a sub-entrance to Knockturn Alley. He released Harry's left elbow and used the now freed hand and dragged from the top of his head down to his eyes.

Where he once had inch long black hair, it was now dirty blonde. His eye's that were green, like Harry's, morphed slowly into a Arctic blue.

"Better?"

"Loads. The smallest differences will throw the normal witch or wizard off. They aren't known for their common sense."

Gabriel laughed a that and he gestured for them to get back on their trek to the goblin bank.

The ascended the stairs and passed the two massive goblins guarding the entrance. The one to their left gave a grunt and the other remained stoic.

Harry looked for an empty booth and he stopped his scanning when he saw a familiar goblin using an abacus to tally something.

His long legs carried him over to him and Harry spoke, "Griphook?"

The goblin's eyes darted towards the tall visage in front of his booth. His grating voice snarled, "Did I give you permission to use my name, human?"

Shocked at the vehemence in Griphook's tone, he tried to sooth the obviously perturbed banker. "My apologies, I didn't realize it was impolite to address a goblin by their name."

"It matters not. Humans don't care for our mannerisms and we care even less for yours. What do you want?"

If Harry looked over at Gabriel he would have noticed the deadly glint in his eyes. But since he wasn't looking, he continued on nonetheless.

"I'm needing to head to my trust vault. I'm also going on a trip so I need a way to access my coin while I'm one the road."

"Vault number, key, and name."

"Vault six hundred and eighty-seven," he reached into his gray jacket that went with his current suit and pulled out the golden key. "Here," and handed it to Griphook handle first. "My name Harry Potter."

Apparently, there was something to his name and Griphook's black, beady eyes narrowed and peered at his face intensely for a second.

"Come with me. There are matters that need your attention towards the will of one Sirius Black."

Harry's eyebrows rose as Griphook hopped off his high-backed stool and stalked towards a grand entrance near the rear of the gilded bank. Both he and Gabriel followed cautiously while Harry's mind was pouring over the fact that there was a will.

"Gabriel, what's this about a will?"

"Sirius must of left you some items, of course," he saw the depression spread over Harry's features and decided to remedy that. "Stop that. Show no weakness in these halls. Sirius loved you and he wanted to give you some creature comforts. Don't bemoan the fact he is gone, be glad he loved you enough to think of you in his will."

Harry nodded and continued following the fast-paced gait of Griphook, while his eyes were taking in the path they were taking. The smooth granite walls, the numerous black-lacquered oak doors, and the sparse lighting of torches, seemingly placed to give the minimum amount of red-orange glow to light their way.

They stopped their walking when they came to a massive double door that had twin halberd's hanging on each door. To Harry, they both seemed to be for decoration and usage as there was some wear on the cruel looking blades.

Griphook dragged his clawed left index finger down the crease between the doors and an echoing knock came from the doors.

"Enter and wait for the solicitor, Mr. Tonks."

While Griphook spun on his miniature boots and left, Harry rhetorically asked, "Mr. Tonks?"

Gabriel took a seat at one of the cushioned chairs surrounding an elongated rectangular table. Harry sat to Gabriel's left with a pensive look marring his face.

"Penny for your thoughts, Harry?" Gabriel asked.

"Oh. Sorry, was just pondering the Tonks situation. I don't know much about law, even less about wizarding law, but is it illegal for a solicitor to disclose details about their clients?"

"Yeah, that's a universal law. He'll keep your secrets, even from his own family."

"Thank god. By the way, what's the deal with goblins? You seemed a little...put-off when it came to them."

Gabriel gave him an apologetic smile, "Sorry about that. Goblins are a...fickle species. It's only been recent that they started acting more accommodating towards humans. They've done some truly atrocious things."

"Like?"

"I'll explain a little later, walls have ears and all that."

"Gotcha."

Before Harry could bring up another subject, the double doors groaned in opening to admit a lean man. The man was normal in appearances. Short brown hair styled into a comb-over fashion, slightly above average height augmented by a powerfully built frame that commanded a confident swagger to his step. Harry realized that the Auror Tonks inherited her fathers heart shaped face.

Being a metamorphmagus, Harry wondered if she kept the facial structure because of a sentimental reason. _'Curious,'_ he thought as the notion popped into his brain.

"Good afternoon, Mr. Potter." Mr. Tonks spoke as he approached, "From what my daughter told me of you, I expected someone a little bit smaller. I guess puberty agrees with you." He finished that sentence with an easy chuckle.

Harry smiled at the appreciated attempt of levity by Mr. Tonks. "You could say that, sir. It's a pleasure meeting the father of Nymphadora. She is quite the character."

The confident, yet easy-going solicitor smirked and replied, "Yes yes, she is at that. Be careful slinging that name about though, she'll have your hide if she finds out."

Harry had a short bout of laughter and he noticed Gabriel give a curious little smirk.

"On to business then, but before we start, you can call me Theodore, or Ted. Only the 'sirs' and 'Mr. Tonks' in formal affairs. I also have to inquire about the relation of your guest."

Harry's eyes widened for a millisecond before he schooled his features. He looked at Gabriel with a questioning look and Gabriel took the chance to introduce himself.

He stood up to shake hands with the still standing Ted Tonks, "Pleasure meeting you, Ted. My name is Gabriel. I am the unofficial guardian of Harry." As he said this, Harry noticed a tingle of magic pulse from where their hands were joined.

"Very good then," apparently Ted didn't notice the magic, "let's all get seated and start with the will."

Gabriel returned to his seat and turned his head to give a wink at Harry, causing Harry to smirk briefly, getting the meaning behind it. Theodore rounded the table and sat across from then, laying his black leather business satchel on the table.

"Seeing as this is a impromptu session, I must inform you that the official reading will be occurring two weeks from now on June the twenty-second. You have the optional choice of returning to Gringotts and sitting for it, but it is not required."

Harry nodded for him to continue.

"Good," he rifled through the satchel for a second and brought out a bound parchment case, "let's get on with it then."

He unwound the small bit of string latching the top closed and took out a small stack of papers.

"We won't be reading through the whole thing, leaving out Residuary Devise and taxes section. Of course, you'll be give a permanent copy of the will for you to read at your own leisure and bring it up with me if there are any discrepancies.

"Sirius has left you as his Heir for the House Black. If you choose to accept this title, I'll need your signature here," Ted pointed at a indented line while holding out a red quill.

"Is the blood quill necessary?" Harry asked warily while he reached for it.

"Aye, it's not the most comfortable thing, but it is required for documents such as these to prevent fraud and theft."

Giving a reluctant nod, Harry swirled the quill on the line, producing his signature. He was surprised, usually his writing came out looking like chicken scratches. He rose his eyebrow at Gabriel in a confused manner and he just shrugged in response.

"Very good, your estate and monetary holdings, after distributions to the other beneficiaries, will be either kept in the House Black vault or transferred to House Potter's vault. You can indicate what you choose at a teller later."

Mulling over that thought, it hit Harry that he just became a Lord of an Ancient and Noble House. Not that he knew much about operating as such, it was still shocking. Apparently, Ted saw the look crossing his face.

"Not to worry, Harry. You can either inquire about your responsibilities within the Black library or going to one of your pure-blooded friends, Longbottom perhaps, and ask for instructions."

This relieved Harry a bit, and it showed as his shoulder sagged.

"Now, to the estate and monetary holdings. After distributions, the Black vault will hold nine-hundred and eighty-five thousand and five hundred galleons. It's compounded holdings in companies obtains the vault roughly fifteen thousand galleons a year. You own a chateau in Utsjoki, Finland along with the ancestral manor in London. The residence in London is unlisted." He gave Harry a pointed look which Harry returned with a wink and a wry grin.

Ted gave a chuckle and returned to shuffle the pages a bit, "Ah, among the items was Sirius' belongings. Most of which went to a Remus Lupin, but he left you with a few. One of which is his," he whistled a bit, "nineteen fifty-three Triumph six 't' Thunderbird."

He looked back at bewildered Harry and a grinning Gabriel, "You _will _treasure this bike, Mr. Potter, or I will flay you alive."

Harry nodded quickly, he came to the realization that Tonk's dad must be a motorcycle enthusiast.

"The full list of items and such will be in the copy here," he slid him another sheaf of papers from the satchel, "the official reading will have the full accounting read. But they will be fully disclosed in the copy, so you don't really need to be there if you so choose."

Sirius' solicitor stood up and started packing up his satchel and absently addressed the pair, "That should be it for now, if you have any questions, you can owl me for an appointment at this address." He handed Harry a vanilla colored card.

Before Ted left, he shook Harry's hand along with Gabriel's and turned to leave through the double doors. Harry turned to a smirking Gabriel and asked, "What's that smirk about?"

"Guess you don't need to get a bike after all. Where is this bike at, anyways?"

Looking through the papers, he found the location and supplied, "Seems to be in the Black vault. Let's go get it and a way to withdraw money without going to the bank everytime I need a pence."

The returned to the lobby, and Harry decided to bother Griphook some more.

"I need to go down to my new vault, and I still need a way to get money without a visit."

Growling, Griphook looked up from where he was using the abacus again. "Why must you insist on bothering me, human?"

"Because I enjoy your sunny disposition. Now will you help me or do I need to keep cracking jokes?"

With an annoyed huff, he tossed the abacus aside in frustration and stomped over to where the cart entrance was. Harry saw that, like him, Gabriel was trying to keep his laughter in at the sight of a petulant goblin.

"Vault number?" Griphook requested snappishly.

Looking at a page, Harry replied with a smile, "Vault number three hundred and twenty-seven, please mister goblin-sir."

Gabriel turned his head to hide his grin.

Griphook snarled and slammed the lever down and with a screech, the gilded cart took off with a gleeful yell from Harry.

What only seemed like moments, they pulled to a squealing stop outside a mammoth size circular door that was ostentatiously made by black marble shined to reflective sheen.

"Here's your vault, human." Griphook snarked while starring straight ahead.

They clamored out of the cart and Harry put his hand on the door, like the instructions said he should on the will copy. This was to sync his magical signature to the door and claim the title of heir to House Black.

A shadowy nimbus enveloped his right hand and Harry gave a minuet jump, even though he knew it was just testing him. The cloud of shadows returned back into the door and behind it left a silver ring with a black melanite stone that had a demantoid look to it. Harry pulled back his hand to look at the ring adorning his right middle finger up close.

There was a miniature skull surrounded by three crows, both imprinted with thin strands of silver, in the center of the andradite stone.

_'Where did I learn all of these terms for stones from?'_ Harry questioned himself while still gazing at the ring.

From behind them, Griphook barked, "Hurry up, humans. I have other tasks to get to."

"Be silent, _orch_. We'll go when we are good and ready," Gabriel snapped back at the bewildered goblin.

Griphook's wide eyes returned to starring forward while Harry noticed h was also slightly shivering.

Harry chose to ask about this later, and he turned to the door once more. He spoke confidently like the papers said to, "Open."

The circular door rolled left into the wall surrounding it to reveal numerous chests sitting upon shelves. The chests had engravings of items to symbolize what the chests held, and a vast majority of them apparently help galleons, sickles and knuts. The thing they were looking for though was sitting front and center between the shelves.

Sirius' bike was a work of art, Harry figured.

It was sleek and looked built for speed and maneuverability. The whole external frame was painted to a midnight black and the only separate coloring was the silver of engine sitting beneath the seat. The only thing that wasn't apart of the bike was a strange looking coat draped over the seat.

Leaving a drooling Gabriel by the door, Harry strode up to the bike and lift the jacket up with both hands to get a good look at it.

It wasn't leather, Harry admitted to himself. There was a scaly texture to the coat, yet it pliable while sturdy. Almost like snakeskin, yet the scales were to big to be from a snake. _'I'll investigate it later.' _He concluded.

Despite not knowing it's material, Harry was completely smitten with it. He had a large smile plastered on his face and he leaned in to get a smell of the jacket. When he did inhale, he was assaulted by the familiar hint of spice and sandalwood that he could remember Sirius smelling like the last time he seen him. He was holding it tightly while he held it back out, and didn't even realize his eyes started to water from all the memories he held of his godfather popped up.

"You okay?" Gabriel questioned from where he was bent over the bike inspecting it.

"I'll miss that old dog."

Gabriel looked up and over his shoulder, "Of course you will, but that doesn't mean you should wallow in self-pity. Love him through your actions." He patted Harry's shoulder and went back to leaning over the bike.

Harry placed the jacket on the nearby shelf and took off his gray suit jacket to throw it on the shelf beside Sirius' jacket. Picking up the scaly jacket, he threw it on with a twist of his arms. It was a little short in the arms, but that apparently didn't matter as the arms of the jacket was elongated by some built in tailoring charm.

It did look a little odd with the tailored trousers but it did fit like a second skin and gave a roguish look to Harry's new appearance. The maroon scales were slightly worn, but it just added character to the obviously favorably worn jacket. Instead of having a zipper to close it, there was numerous leather strips running up one side of the parted seam, with the brackish buckles on the other side. Two coat pockets were on the front with a single inseam pocket stashed on the inside over his left breast.

Harry could only imagine what Padfoot smuggled in _that _pocket.

Gabriel was straddling the bike now and flipping dials, checking all the inboard mechanics to see if they were fit for travel. He looked over as he finished the check up, "We're all good for flight, Captain. Let's shrink this bad boy down and get my bike over in Bristol. Then we can crash for the rest of the day at Privet Drive and plan the rest of the trip out."

With a nod, Harry removed his new jacket and put on the suit jacket her placed on the shelf.

Glancing at Gabriel, he saw him put the now toy-like bike into the internal pocket of his Armani jacket and patted it. "To Bristol!" He shouted and practically dragged an amused looking Harry back to the cart and a frightened Griphook.

* * *

A loud bang echoed down the neighborhood as a purple triple-decker bus skidded to a stop outside the house of one Harry Potter.

The doors parted a frazzled looking Hermione ambled out unsteadily and a little green in the face. She turned to a pimply-faced attendant and gave him a curt nod after handing him a couple of sickles. It was a short ride, after all.

After the bus cracked away in a purple blur, Hermione crouched over while breathing heavily.

"Sweet mother of God." She huffed out, trying to force down the bile.

She stayed in this position for a minute, literally, before straightening up and looking up and down the neighborhood looking for curious neighbors. _'Ah, must have notice-me-not charms on it,' _she nodded as she deduced the reason for the lack of bewildered muggles.

Hermione looked up at the house and made sure it was the correct one by checking the small italic number four to the left of the door. Satisfied, she half-ran to the door in her haste to see her friend. Knocking on it twice and waiting, she heard the tapping of heels on the floor inside.

The cream colored door cracked open and the long face of Harry's Aunt Petunia glared at her. "What do you want, girl?"

"I'm here to check up on Harry, is he here?"

"Been gone for a couple of hours, go away." She promptly slammed the door in Hermione's face.

Hermione huffed in annoyance, both at Petunia and herself for not making sure Harry was home before she came over.

A soft rumbling reached her ears and she turned around trying to see the reason. She stepped away from the patio onto the graveled path to the driveway and looked up and down the road. Hermione couldn't see a vehicle, but the rumbling was only getting louder.

As she was walking towards the edge of the street to get a better look, two loud roars from an engine to her left caught her attention and she finally seen the cause.

Two black shapes just turned the corner and she noticed, whoever they were, were riding motorcycles. Now that they were thundering in her direction, she noticed both were dressed oddly for a day riding bikes. The two men were dressed for a night on the town in suits, the one closest to the curb was dressed in a stylish black one-buttoned suit while the one closest to her was in a gray matching ensemble.

When they were only two blocks away, they caught sight of her and quickly braked. They stopped and the men faced each other, apparently discussing something. The one in gray nodded and they both lightly gunned the engine to carry them the rest of the way.

To her shock, they both pulled into the driveway of number four and only then did she start recognizing the figures. The one in gray had long, black hair that was blown back naturally with little wisps of hair hanging over his sideburns. The other had dirty blonde hair that was cropped short. She was trying to get a glimpse of their eyes, but they both had protective plastic goggles covering their eyes.

Hermione walked over to the dark haired one, and while she noticed he was physically bigger than Harry, the figure was slouched over like Harry does at times when sits.

"Harry?" She cautiously asked.

The man sighed and reached up to pull back the goggles and let them sit on top of his head. Her breathe caught in her throat when she finally got a look at his eyes.

They were emerald green, just like Harry's.

"Hello, Hermione."

Her mouth was opening and closing like a fish in shock. She reached around the stranger and was about to poke Harry with her right hand to discern if he was real or not.

The other man laughed quietly at her antics and told her, "Yeah, it's Harry. And yes, he is real."

She snapped back her hand is if stunned and whirled around to glare at the fair haired man. "Who are you and what have you done to my best friend?" She practically growled at him.

Swinging his right over the bike he stood up to introduce himself, "I'm Gabriel, a pleasure to meet you Hermione. Harry goes on and on about you," he concluded with a smirk directed at Harry over his shoulder.

"A pleasure I'm sure, but explain what happened to Harry. Now!" She snapped while she held her arms akimbo.

Smiling ruefully, he turned his head back to look into her eyes.

"I assure you, my lovely friend, that Harry is perfectly safe. His magic decided to help his growth out finally after all these years of neglect from his relatives."

Hearing this, she narrowed her eyes at Harry and questioned with a deathly calm voice, "Is this true, Harry?"

"Every word," he answered without hesitation. Hermione found it odd that Harry sounded slightly...aloof. Like he was controlling his emotions. _'Why would he need to control himself around me?' _She wondered.

She hurried around Gabriel and his bike and stood in between them, facing the still seated Harry.

"Prove that you are _my _Harry."

Harry cocked his eyebrow at the possessive tone when she said "my Harry" but other than that, he kept his facial features and posture calm and relaxed.

He leaned over to whisper in Hermione's right ear, "You find expulsion to be worse than death." He leaned back when felt more than saw her shiver.

His eyebrow was still raised when he noticed the flushed appearance of his secret crush. It was curious to Harry. And more than a little bit exciting, as his mind supplied numerous reasons for the sudden blush that was creeping up Hermione's neck.

"Harry, what happened to you? Are you okay?" She asked quickly, trying to divert his mind from the sudden flush she knew she had.

Harry swung his leg over similar to Gabriel and took Hermione's hands in his while looking up into chocolate colored eyes.

"I'm fine, Hermione," he assured while giving her hands a squeeze. "I promise. A day or so ago, my body started to rapidly change. I felt my magic coursing through my body and I gave Gabriel here a call to see if I was okay."

It slightly perturbed Harry that he was basically lying to Hermione. But when he reminded himself that it was still technically true, it eased the burden a bit.

Hermione looked down at their joined hands while he was speaking. _'They're so big...and soft...stop that!' _she berated herself when her thoughts started wondering into stranger waters.

"Alright. How did you meet Gabriel? You've never told me about him before."

"I went to Saint Mungo's when I first started feeling strange. At the Second Floor, they passed me off to Gabriel where he works as a independent contractor. He does research in experimental healing and magical phenomenon."

She looked over her left shoulder at a waving Gabriel and returned her gaze into Harry's eyes.

"That makes sense. I thought I saw you last night in Huntingdon, and it kept bugging me. I had to check. I'm sorry for showing up without asking first." Hermione blushed in embarrassment.

"It's fine, 'Mione. You wouldn't be you if you didn't investigate something that you didn't know," He gave her a cheeky grin.

His best female friend gave a little chuckle, then mock-glared at Harry, "You make it sound like I'm a know-it-all!" Of course, the effectiveness of the glare was lessened while she was smiling.

"You're my know-it-all." He winked at her before letting her hands drop.

_'Since when does Harry wink!' _She contemplated.

Harry stood up in front of Hermione but didn't notice the wide eye's of friend. They gave him a quick once over before they snapped back up his chest. She laughed then looked up further to finally meet his smiling eyes.

"Merlin, Harry! You're huge!" She promptly stated.

He grinned at her and looked up to see Gabriel making kissy faces at him. He rolled his eyes at him before Harry looked back down at his beautiful friend.

"Thanks, I guess. It's weird being tall all of a sudden. I don't know how tall folk ever get used to it!"

It was Hermione's turn to roll her eyes before she asked, "So is it to soon to ask what this project is that you are working on?"

"Nah, just planning on taking a little trip with Gabriel here. He wants me to go visit these healers back east where he used to work. He thinks they have seen something before like what happened to me." He noticed her worried eyes, "Don't worry, Hermione. The healers that work with Gabriel all told me that I'm healthy as a horse."

She gave a weak smile, but accepted the reassurance.

"Alright, so I take it you are leaving in a week then?"

"Yep. I wanted to see you before I left so I could explain all this," he gestured to his body while he spoke. "But since now you know, I guess we can just go have some fun doing whatever kids do for fun, nowadays."

She stuck her tongue out at him before asking a question that's been bugging her since she seen him arrive. "Where did you get the motorcycles from? I didn't know you could ride."

"Technically, I just learned today. The one I'm driving used to be Sirius', I received it when I went to Gringotts and they told me about his will."

Sadness spread throughout Hermione and she leaned forward to hug Harry, "I'm so sorry about Sirius, Harry."

He tightened the embrace before slightly leaning back to look down into face, his arms still around her shoulders. "Thanks. I am sad he is gone, but I know he would be quite put out with me if seen me completely around the twist about it. He'd want me to move on and live me life."

Smiling, Hermione laid her head against Harry's chest and spoke softly, "I'm glad you feel this way. I was so worried that you would be in a depression."

"I was, for a time. But I got over it after I thought about a few things. He loved me and I loved him, nothing was left unsaid that couldn't wait till I meet him again when I pass."

Hermione was slightly blown away at his show of maturity. "When did you become the mature one? You used to be the moody one of the group! Now who am I going to fill that slot with?"

Chuckling at her joke, he replied, "You could always just give it to the rightful owner."

She gave him a look that said 'continue now, or I'll smack you.'

Harry gave a laugh and answered, "Snape."

She rolled her eyes and drawled, "Of course. Ten points to Gryffindor." Harry gave her another cheeky grin before hugging her back into him.

Hermione seemed to finally notice they were still hugging and her eyes widened slightly. She reluctantly pried herself away from Harry and immediately wanted to go back into the hug she just left. She didn't notice the brief flash of longing that crossed his face when she stepped back.

"Well, since you are in good spirits, I'll let you get back to your project. Mail me the day and time when you want to visit. My parent's would like to meet you before we go out."

Harry agreed with a nod and a smile, "Sounds smashing. I'll let you know."

She turned and raised her right hand that had her wand in it and a bang accompanied the arrival of the Knight Bus. She was about to walk forward before she turned around quickly and hurried back over to Harry. She jumped up to hug him around his shoulders, while his long arms snaked around her waist.

She whispered into his ear, "See you soon, Harry." Hermione leaned back slight and gave a light peck on his smooth cheek. She wiggled out of the embrace that did interesting things for both teens before she dashed on board the bus.

The bus took off, leaving a slightly dazed looking Harry and an amused Gabriel standing there on the concrete driveway.

"Gabriel?"

The guardian angel looked at Harry and gave him a questioning hum.

"I think I'm in trouble."

Apparently, that was all it took for Gabriel to burst out into laughter. When his laughter died down to just chuckles, he told Harry, "No, you're screwed. Royally."

Harry groaned and slumped back down onto the Triumph.

Gabriel, with humor in his voice, continued where he left off. "Ah, awkward teenage love. Nothing better!"

* * *

**A/N: **Alright, as I'm sure you noticed, the topic was masturbation. As you guess, with this being a Mature rated story, there will be scenes of a...particular quality here and there. No, this will not be a smut heavy fic, but there will be sexual situations here and there. But not for a while at least. You might ask why Harry is now just discovering masturbation while he is almost sixteen. I've researched this a bit, and apparently, if a teenager was deprived of essential nutrition in his childhood, it can cause a late bloom of his, or her, libido. It just, excuse the pun, popping up after the change to his body is not as far fetched as it sounds. Hope this clears up some of the questions you might have. Thanks for reading!


	7. Chapter 7: Brewing Storms and Thoughts

**A/N: **Hey folks! Sorry for the huge delay in between updates. A lot of confusion is going on in the beta department and I'm going to put up this chapter up that I beta'd myself and later re-post it. Maybe. Anyways, this chapter has a bunch of things going on that are _hinting _at future events. So really try to look for the clues and post in a review what you think is going to happen. It will really make me laugh to see what you all come up with, as I doubt you will correctly connect the dots. For now, read and review so I can see what you all think of it so far. I am really looking forward to this stories progression. Oh! Before I forget, in the last chapter, I messed up with the dates. They are in July right now as Hogwarts is still in session in June.

_Standard disclaimers apply_

**Brewing Storms and Thoughts**

Ikeq Island, on the southern tip of Greenland, was a desolate place. Almost constantly cold and uninhabited, it was not really a place a person would strive to visit. That is, normal people wouldn't visit.

Wizard and witches on the other hand never really embraced social norms.

This island was purposely left sparse and unaccommodating so that new and dangerous magicks could be studied and practiced within a controlled environment. It wasn't a big operation, but a few dozen magic users was periodically present for research.

Wizarding tents surrounded an unnatural flat patch of land that overlooked the Atlantic ocean; the only thing that gave them away as magical was the wind wasn't disturbing the tents. With the winds being up to forty knots, it was slightly telling.

A squat man exited a tent and stretched. The furs that adorned his robe were normal for the researchers. This wizard, though, was about to start his early morning routine. His colleagues considered him odd because of his little slice of normality. Why be normal when one was a wizard, they usually asked him.

He always gave the same answer: if you lose sight of normal and continuously do the remarkable, the remarkable loses it's luster.

The man walked over to a wooden trunk that was beside his tent and opened it up to retrieve a long bundled item, he kicked the side so it would close and threw the item over his shoulder. His right hand was on the bottom of the long package while his left hand clamped the the robes closer together to stifle the wind.

His trek to his spot was a medium length one, but he preferred to walk it. Of course, he could apparate to it, but he liked to take in his surroundings and let the brisk air with a hint of salt water wake him up.

After a few stops where he had to reposition the wrapped item, he finally made it to a cliff that had a drop-off that overlooked the slightly turbulent sea to the south.

He laid his package gently down onto the ground and while he was straightening up, he pulled his wand from his left sleeve. Giving a simple wave, an unbranded fishing chair came into existence and sat upon a solid slab of rock.

Returning his wand, the man leaned over and unbound the object of his small obsession. He gave a content sigh and pulled out a a gray and simple fishing rod. He pulled the line from the spool and fed it through the many holes that centered the rods pull while trotting over to his chair. Plopping down onto the chair, it gave a squeak but held firm.

His task of readying the rod finished, he pulled out a little plastic container from his robe pocket that held his hooks along with his few favorite artificial baits.

Artificial bait was his choice this morning, he figured he wanted to have a relaxed morning, not really caring if he caught anything or not.

Attaching the squishy, luminescent worm onto the line was an easy practiced maneuver he perfected over his many trips to this point. He even practiced in his tent in between projects.

He leaned back his arm with the handle of the fishing rod in a tight grip with his left hand. With a heave, the fake bait was sent flying out and over the edge of the cliff. It was a relatively short drop, only ten feet, but he still waited for the soft pop of breaking water to reach his ears.

Three seconds after casting he heard it and he leaned back with an easy smile. He knew it was going to be a good day.

Minutes passed uncounted while the academic wizard periodically reeled in and cast back out. Not a care in the world was what he was aiming for and that is what he got for the first thirty minutes.

Peering towards the southern horizon, all he could see was endless blue. It was beauty unrefined and everytime he looked, it always took his breath away.

But something was different this time.

The sea, with waves that slowly at away at the cliff's face, was doing something unusual. Instead of lapping at the cliff, the waters were being pulled _towards_ the open ocean. The sea didn't do this, the currents were usually pushing the waves towards the land, not pulling it back into the sea.

"That's unusual..." The man murmured, his fishing pole all but forgotten in his left hand.

Looking up towards open water, he squinted his eyes to see if he could discern the cause. After a few moments while his eyes adjusted, he could make out..._something_. It was shapeless, and was wafting above the water. Whatever it was, it was weightless.

Then it hit him, it was mist. Thick mist, but mist nonetheless. It was strange for mist to be formed this late in the morning, especially on the ocean. But the mist was there, and he was a researcher so he was understandably curious. Even if it was outside his profession, it was an enigma.

He reeled the line back up and put the pole down beside him on the sheet he wrapped it with usually. Pulling open his robe, he reached in and retrieved a set of muggle binoculars he invested in that one time he went to a fishing shop for his pole and tackles.

Putting them up to his face for a moment, he then quickly lowered them. He closed his eyes and rubbed them with his right hand and put the binoculars back up to his eyes.

His mouth flapped open but he still held the viewing device up to his face. Lowering them, he shot up and quickly bundled up his fishing pole and banished the conjured chair.

The wizard turned on the spot and reappeared with a loud pop of air right beside his tent. He threw his possession on top of the chest and ran over to one of the more prominent tents and let himself in. Once inside, a woman in a bath robe whirled around and nearly screeched, "Roberts! You better have a good reason for-"

Roberts cut her off mid rant, "Ma'am, you aren't going to believe what I just seen!"

Still glaring, she stood there with her arms covering herself.

"It better be good."

* * *

Harry was still a touch embarrassed while Gabriel shrunk down the bikes and put them in a temporal stasis. He said it was to keep the bikes from leaking and rusting.

He also warned never to entrap something living within the stasis unless you didn't want it to die rather nastily.

"I don't know what is so funny." Harry pouted with crossed arms.

Gabriel chuckled while putting the miniature bikes into his breast pocket, "It was Hermione. That girl surprises me in every reality. She is ridiculously smart, yet unpredictable."

Harry snorted and agreed, "Yeah, that's Hermione alright. So what should we do about this? I mean, it was a little bit ahead of schedule for her knowing about my changes."

"She only took in the physical one. I am pretty sure her mind was on...other things while she observed you."

"Wait. Hermione didn't check me out. That's not...okay she did give me the once over. But still, I doubt that she was thinking about _those _types of things. She was worried about, that's all."

It was Gabriel's turn to snort, "Right. Explain the part where she shimmied down your front and her face resembling a refined ruby." He turned towards the house and gestured for Harry to follow.

Harry followed but was sputtering trying to form a coherent explanation. Truthfully, he didn't notice the blush that Gabriel claimed Hermione had. His mind was pretty much stuck in neutral once the squirming began.

"Just get over it, Harry." Gabriel stated while holding open the door, "She has probably fancied you for the longest time, and your changes definitely peeked her...interests." He closed the door once Harry walked through.

"Why haven't I noticed this before?" Harry was exasperated. His mind could pull up memories on all the tell-tale signs of a crush, but when it came to acting on them, it was a garbled mess of nervousness and a peculiar feeling reminiscent of nausea.

The continued to the stairs leading to Harry's room, passing a fuming Petunia holding a plastic spatula. Dudley had his eye's locked with his plate that held numerous rashers trying to ignore their presence.

Right before they started up the stairs, Petunia tried to yell but instead, squeaked at Harry, "Boy, is that a freak from your world? If it is, I want him out of this house this instant! I will not have more than one of your _kind _in my house!"

Pausing with his right foot on the first step, Harry turned to his left to see his Aunt's long neck and horse-like face protruding out of the kitchen entrance.

"Aunt Petunia," he addressed in a calm tone. "This Gabriel, and yes he is magical like me. You, like your super-sized husband, will ignore me and I will ignore you in return. If you start trouble, I will damn sure finish it. Go back to feeding the small whale in your kitchen." He turned and continued up the stairs.

Gabriel flashed the ashen-faced Petunia a smirk and followed Harry up to his room.

"Well done back there. I take it you muted your emotions during that little...diatribe?"

Harry seated himself on the wooden chair and rubbed his eyes with his hand. He paused before he could explain when he realized he wasn't wearing his glasses. Actually, the last time he swore he worn them was before he laid down on his bed while his body was doing it's growth spurt.

"Gabriel, before we get to that, where are my glasses? And why can I see without them?"

His guardian gave a spurt of laughter and exclaimed, "Finally! I was wondering when you would realize you weren't wearing them!"

Giving Gabriel a dirty look, Harry asked, "You actually pranked me? Why didn't I feel it through the bond?"

"Well, seeing as you were in considerable pain, I doubt you would have noticed if I was tap dancing in the nude while singing a Pearl Jam classic."

"Despite the prank, I thank you for not indulging your nudist tap dancing desires. And should I be glad I don't know who Pearl Jam is?"

Gabriel stopped laughing abruptly and stilled. His shocked figure inches from sitting on a conjured chair, which looked mightily uncomfortable to hold that position. Slowly, and slightly dejectedly, he sat heavily and put a depressed look on his face.

"You poor thing. How do you _not _know who Pearl Jam is? I mean, I'm sure that did more damage to your growth than the malnourishment did!"

Harry snorted and put his elbow on the table to prop his face up. "Oh shut-it, you ninny. Never really got to hear music apart from Dudley's horrible attempts at learning the guitar a few years ago."

The blonde man shook his head dejectedly and leaned forward to cradle his face in his hands, elbows on his knees.

"First thing to get before the trip is a Walkman or Sony Minidisc for you. I can't get us something from my time, that would cause problems, but I can deal with hefting around a ten pound piece of plastic."

With a wary nod, Harry continued, "Now, what is this about my glasses?"

Gabriel who was still looking dramatically saddened at the thought of how lacking Harry was on music, explained with a slight warble.

"It was the DNA enhancement. When it examined your body for deficiencies, it more than likely took your poor eyesight as something to fix. It worked, obviously."

Listening with a curious look to his face, Harry suddenly started tittering at a random thought. "How long do you think it will take Hermione to realize I wasn't wearing glasses?"

That question seemed to pull Gabriel out of his self-imposed misery and caused him to give a peal of laughter.

"I'd say as soon she was on the bus back to her place. You _did _knock her through a loop with everything else different about you."

"True. Back on point, I did numb some of the emotions when I saw her. I think she noticed that, but decided to ignore it for now. I wanted to jump up and snog her as soon as I saw here. I doubt she'd be appreciative of that!"

Gabriel gave a snort at the image, he leaned back with his arms on the armrests of the chair. "Yeah," he began. "I doubt it as well. The part about basically jumping her bones is attributed to your surge of hormones. They'll even out when the changes become stable."

"I figured that was the case," Harry nodded. "Thank god I'm able to mute my emotions or I'd be a walking prick right now."

"No kidding. You'll just have to watch yourself. Especially around Hermione, since you fancy her. God, this is awkward as hell giving myself advice on dating. I usually just do a bit of matchmaking with my alternates; not tell them how to properly chase women."

Harry laughed and retorted, "You're crack at Cho was as subtle as a bull in a china shop. You need to work on dropping hints, because all you do is drop atom bombs."

Gabriel waved his hand gaily and changed subjects. "So, how did you like your first ride on a bike?"

"It was amazing," Harry gushed. "I mean, it was a little disconcerting at first, but once I got it, it was pretty natural feeling."

"You did get the hang of it fast. I used to ride before I picked up with the Guardian Angel thing. This-", he patted his jacket, "-Royal Enfield is a thing of beauty, though. I can't wait for our first ride to France."

Right after he stopped talking, Gabriel suddenly snapped his fingers. "That reminds me, good play on the whole me working for the hospital independently. Especially the bit about me taking you to see my 'colleagues' on the continent."

"Yeah, I knew I had to say something to alleviate Hermione's inquisitiveness. I did hate having to lie to her though."

"Don't worry about it, you lied for a good reason. Plus, you'll fill her in on the truth soon enough, and I know she will practically forgive you of anything."

With another nod, Harry turned in his seat, looking for Hedwig. Figuring she was out hunting, he asked about breakfast.

Gabriel answered, "Almost forgot, let's do some fruit and egg whites."

"That's it?"

"Believe me when I say you will appreciate what this will do for you. It has tons of...benefits." Gabriel gave a wink and stood up to get breakfast ready.

Harry gave a curious look at Gabriel's turned back and decided to not ask about these secretive benefits. He leaned over in his chair to grab one of his books for the coming semester to review, even though he could remember what most of the pages held.

Leaning back in the stiff chair trying to get comfortable and with a disappointed huff he crossed his right leg over his left and propped his fifth year Potions text on his knee. Idly flipping through it, his mind kept racing ahead of eyes when the subject matter on the page was revealed. He closed the book and opened it randomly somewhere in the middle; it showed a depiction of the Ismoldian Root and had in small writing it's properties. His mind filled with knowledge and properties of the root before he could start reading.

With a sigh, he closed the tome and tossed it onto his bed where it made a snapping sound as the cover slapped closed.

"What's the problem?" Gabriel question while he was dicing the fruit in front of him.

Throwing his hands in the air, Harry explained, "I can't re-read anything. It's already all in here," Harry poked himself in the temple. "It's like whatever I've read before is in there. Before I'd have to struggle to remember even the simplest facts. Now, it's all there. Everything!"

Gabriel gave a deep chuckle while scooping some slices onto a conjured plate.

"And that's a bad thing?"

"Not really," Harry crossed his arms with a petulant look, "it just doesn't seem...normal. Hermione is going to have a fit if she realizes that I remember everything about our subjects and she can't."

This drew a laugh before Gabriel replied. "Don't worry about Hermione. I think she will be secretly proud that you aren't being a lazy student anymore. Here, stop your whinging and eat." He slid a plate forward.

Grumbling about not being a whiner, he speared a slice of an orange and chewed on it roughly.

Gabriel made his way over to the map he laid on the bed earlier and was looking at intently at a spot that Harry couldn't discern. Harry looked over again after swallowing his eggs.

"What are you looking at?"

Gabriel just hummed questioningly and kept looking.

"Gabriel!"

With a slight jolt, Gabriel turned finally.

"Sorry. What did you ask?"

"What were you staring at?"

"Oh. I was looking at this point," he pointed a little bit south of Greenland, "in the North Atlantic. It's where the elves are supposed to arrive from."

Curiosity peaked, Harry pushed away from the table and sidled up next to his Guardian to look at the point where his finger was aimed at.

"Why here?"

"No clue," Gabriel supplied dryly.

With a snort, Harry turned and walked to window while stretching his arms behind him.

"It's been raining a lot. Odd for the England in the summer."

Harry heard Gabriel approach behind him, "True. I think it has something to do with the nexus' moving. They were thickly intertwined with nature when they were laid. Hopefully, nothing serious will be caused by it."

"Won't the angel's take up arms about it, especially if it is affecting the weather?"

Gabriel didn't respond for a moment, so Harry turned slightly to his left to look at him. Gabriel had his eye's closed while seemingly in deep thought.

"It's...unlikely. The elves would never purposefully damage Earth. They are bound to nature so it wouldn't be wise on their part if they did."

Turning back to the window, he saw it was starting to fog up from the rain and the heat. With a sigh, he returned to his seat where he picked up a banana and began to nibble on it.

Gabriel opened his eyes finally and turned to sit on the sill while facing Harry.

"So Harry, why don't we continue on with your Sonancy."

Harry's eye's widened and nodded vigorously, with the added humor on the banana still in between his lips. Gabriel got an amused look on his face and just shook his head while he stood up.

Swallowing the bite he took out of the banana, he tossed the rest into the bin. Harry stood up and was following Gabriel's movements around his room with a inquisitive gaze.

"What are you doing, Gabe?" Harry asked when Gabriel threw on his jacket once more.

"Getting ready to head out of course. You should change into some jeans and a plain shirt. We are going out for this lesson."

With a bright smile, Harry ran over to his dresser and almost ripped out the drawer in his haste. Whipping out one of the new boot-cut denim trousers and a white pullover, he ran to the restroom to change.

Gabriel snorted at Harry's excitability before turning back to the window.

His cold blue eyes surveyed the clouds while his lips were in a thin line, no humor upon his face while Harry was gone.

With a soft whisper, Gabriel returned his sweeping gaze of the skies. "What's different..."

* * *

Hermione was holding on for dear life.

The Knight Bus was, it seemed, even less gentle the second time around. _'No wonder Harry hates this blasted contraption!' _She thought after a particularly grueling ninety degree turn down what looked like a dead-end alley.

It was only a ten minute venture from her house to Harry's, but it felt even longer with the way the bus was driven by Ernie Prang. It was driving Hermione mad with how the conductor, Stan, was lounging comfortably against the driver compartment window.

Hermione was also becoming perturbed by Stan's random attempt's of conversation.

"You're one of Harry Potter's friends, ain't ya'?" Stan casually asked while picking at his nails.

Hermione could only nod her head once, trying to keep the bile from rising any higher.

"Interestin' bloke. Came on here back in ninety-three proclaiming to be a Neville Longbottom, he did!"

"You don't say," she replied with her eyes tightly closed. _'Just a few more minutes,' _Hermione promised her stomach.

With the tires screeching, she threw a couple sickles at Stan and ran off the bus before it could take off again with her in it. With a bang, the bus was once more gone in a purple blur.

"Thank god!" She resisted the urge to hug her front lawn as she walked unsteadily to her door.

Once more on steady ground, she pushed open the front door and headed to her bedroom to lie down. Crookshanks, hearing the door open, rushed up beside her as she made her way to her room. When she walked into her room, she flopped down onto the comforter with her cat curled up beside her.

"I'm never going to ride that again. Ever," she resolutely told the ceiling.

When her stomach was done rolling, Hermione began to idly pet Crookshanks with her left hand. Her right was tracing the patterns of the knitting on her sheeting.

Her mind was shell-shocked at the new information it held in regards to Harry. Not only with her new insight on her feelings towards him, he was now completely different in appearance. It was troubling her conscious, hoping that nothing was truly wrong with Harry. She knew he had a quirk when it came to his own well being.

"Damn his altruism."

Crookshanks, not really up for a conversation, wrapped his stout limbs around her left arm while trying to sleep.

All together, she couldn't really complain in Harry's new look. Even though he appeared to resemble a twenty-five year old man, it was still _her _Harry that gazed back at her earlier. She loved Harry when he was still a short and wiry looking teenager, so she pushed her worry about being shallow out of her mind. Then of course, the thought of Harry thinking her to be shallow if she showed she was interested all of a sudden came to the fore.

That got her worrying all over again.

Deciding to push the entire matter of his attractiveness to the side, she moved on to what she noticed when they were talking. To her, he seemed so distant. Aloof, even. Like he was hiding something from her, which almost worked in her shock at new...stature.

_'Dammit, why can't I stop thinking about the feeling of him against me.'_

With a huff, she sat up and untangled her arm from Crookshanks grip. Once the minor fight was over, Hermione raised herself off the bed and removed her coat to lay it across the cushioned bench in front of her bed. She turned to the mirror above her dresser and remembered suddenly that she needed to apply the restorative balm that Madame Pomfrey gave her.

She moved to the mirror while unbuttoning her white blouse, her thoughts elsewhere. With the shirt hanging open, she picked up the jar of the cream and scooped out some on her finger and laid it back down while open.

Hermione took in her torso where the scar lay. To be truthful, there was minor twinges of pain when she exerted herself to much, but beyond that, all that remained was the rosy pink scar. She shrugged her the collar of the shirt over her shoulders and began to apply the cream with her index and middle finger, enjoying the warming sensation and smell of Frangipani.

_'Got to love Hawaiian medicine,' _Hermione thought with a quiet chuckle.

Tracing the scar with her fingers covered in the cream, she let her mind wonder. Her reaction to being in his presence was baffling, but she expected it with her realizations of Harry. The new dynamic, even if it was only shared by her, would be problematic she figured.

Her eyes followed her fingers descent to her cleavage. Hermione always figured she was normal in the attractiveness of her own body. Modesty was humbling but also a nuisance when it came to her. She knew she was intelligent, frighteningly so, but it seemed what she obtained in intelligence was countered by her genetics.

She was _very _self-deprecating and she hated it.

Hermione wanted to be accepted more than anything. Her whole life, even at Hogwarts, Hermione was belittled and shunned for her intelligence. Ron, her mutual friend of Harry's, would constantly put her down for being bookish and overbearing. The only one who never actively did so was Harry.

She even remembered the time during second year when she was petrified. When she awoke, Madame Pomfrey would sit and talk while running diagnostics. During these talks, the healer told her of the constant company of Harry at her bedside. Holding her hand, reading her books he brought from classes, and the night before he descended down into the chamber he kissed her on the cheek.

When Pomfrey told her this with a slight smile, Hermione was stunned. Harry _never _initiates intimate gestures. Hell, she never thought he knew how to kiss someone.

Despite all that, it spawned a feeling of belonging in her to the point that she promised to do for him what he did for her. Hermione would never abandon Harry, never leave his side, and never let him come to harm if she could help it.

Her index finger came into contact with the clasp of her brassier and snapped her out of her thoughts. The white of the garment blended in flawlessly with her fair skin and her mother said so when they picked it out. The only problem was the clasp in the front that always itched.

_'Bloody annoying is what it is.'_

Deciding to leave it on regardless, she wormed her fingers underneath the clasp to smear the cream over the scar beneath the strap. She figured she spent enough time doing this routine and quickly lathered the rest of the scar, and left her shirt open for her glistening skin to dry.

If she left the wonderfully smelling balm on to long, it always caused a burning sensation so she waited by the clock in her room.

Drumming her fingers on the arm of her chair, Hermione followed the second hand with her eyes.

Crookshanks was rolling on his back on her comforter trying to get her attention so she would rub his stomach. It wasn't working.

While her mind was mutinously pulling up images of Harry in her head, he hand suddenly stopped strumming. Her eyes widened then narrowed and she let out an exasperated huff.

Hermione slapped the arms with her hands, "He wasn't wearing his bloody glasses!"

* * *

Lake Skedomssjön in Sweden was a beautiful place. Surrounded by mountains that was almost constantly in season was a rarity to the rest of the country. In the middle of the lake there was a tiny spit of land that was flat compared to the land around the lake.

All in all it would be a nice place to take a hike.

With a uncharacteristic pick up of wind, two men materialized onto the miniature island of the lake. One dressed for a dinner party and the other rather casually.

"Where are we, Gabe?"

Gabriel smiled and inhaled a deep breath, "We, my good sir, are in Sweden. Where they eat reindeer and drinking water on the porch is rude."

Harry snorted while looking around the country side that surrounded them.

"Sounds like your kind of place."

Gabriel chuckled and shoved Harry away from him before he materialized a metal coat rack and hung his black jacket up on it.

"Okay smart ass, let's see what we can get done today."

Harry was standing near the waters edge, his godfather's scaled jacket covering his white shirt. He heard Gabriel but was choosing to listen to the nature around him. Of all the things that his new awareness offered him, he liked his ability to take in the world more fully the best. With a deep breath, he nodded and moved over to the rack to hang up the jacket.

"I chose this place for a couple of reasons. One, it's highly remote. Second, we are surrounded by organic life and little industrial damage. Why would the second reason be most important?"

He looked at Harry to answer.

"Because Sonancy takes the magic from the Earth and does what the caster needs, unlike the form of magic most commonly used which uses fabricated energy. It's more of symbiotic relationship with Sonancy."

Gabriel smiled and clapped Harry on the shoulder before walking to the center of the island.

"Now Harry, I'm going to show you some of what Sonancy can do once you fully understand it. It's a limitless magic in thus that the only limit to what you can do with it is what you limit yourself."

Harry snorted, "Alright, Mr. Einstein."

Gabriel chuckled and raised his arms similar to that of a orchestra conductor. He even had the suit to complete the image of one.

He closed his eyes and began to whistle a tune. It was slow-paced in its tempo yet it was uplifting, and Harry could feel the _pull _of magic in the air around them. Gabriel started to maneuver his arms, slowly at first, and it reminded Harry of a train trying to gain traction on it's wheels.

Then Harry felt it pick up speed. That tingle on the nape of his neck crept up and the sudden stillness of the environment told him something was happening. The thing was, Harry couldn't see what Gabriel was causing.

The feeling of magic in the air thickened and Harry listened to his friend whistle the same four notes sporadically in sequence, his arms now swinging in irregular patterns.

That is when Harry heard something other than the whistling and the odd silence around them. A whirling sound of water sloshing prompted him to look at the water encasing the island.

It was moving. Not that odd, if he thought about it, but it was the way it was moving that struck Harry as unusual. The once still lake water was now cycling clockwise around their little island and only seemed to be gaining momentum. It wasn't turbulent like you would expect, but was gracefully gliding around the islet.

A movement in Harry's peripheral vision brought his attention back to Gabriel who now had his arms held out to his sides. His hands were tuned palm up and were level to his naval. To Harry, it looked like he was suddenly _holding _something up.

Ever so slowly, his arms began to rise. He wasn't whistling a tune anymore and was just holding a single note that ensconced Harry in soothing quality.

More sloshing drew his attention back to the water and where the water used to be recessed a foot beneath the ledge it was rising past it. It wasn't overflowing onto the ground that it once encased but continued rising while rotating around them.

Harry's eyes widened when he saw a few Blue bream idly swimming in the raising lake.

Gabriel's arms were now held up to his chest and his hands clenched in fists once before he cut off his whistle and lowered his arms. The water stopped cycling but the lake water stayed risen about seven feet from its original level.

Harry gave a low whistle in appreciation and Gabriel chuckled while walking towards his charge.

"You like?"

"Oh yeah. Very Moses of you, mister I-work-for-angels."

With a barking laugh, he cuffed Harry on the shoulder before he began to explain.

"This was done through an understanding of watch mechanics and the magic of producing more water from the environment. Answer me this, why was I rotating the water before I raised it?"

Even though his knowledge on physics was lacking, Harry could use his rational to take an educated guess. "I'd say from what I know, water is more easily assimilated to new elements in motion. Like when mixing oil and water, the oil will stay on top and not dissolve into water readily. But with motion, such as shaking, it can mix more completely for a limited time."

Gabriel nodded, "Continue."

"But since it was just more water that you adding, the whirlpool effect you created just produced an easier way for it to be introduced into the preexisting water. If you just created the water and dumped it into the lake, it would have disturbed more than just the surface of the water, but also beneath it."

"Good. Very good. This is more simple than manipulating oceanic waters because closed lakes rarely have undercurrents and tides to contend with. Once you become more knowledgeable of the way things work, you'll understand how to use Sonancy more effectively."

With that, Gabriel closed his eyes and pushed out air between his teeth, causing a slight hissing sound. Harry noticed that the surface of the water started to smoke, and then he realized that with the connection Gabriel formed: he was hastening evaporation.

The surface started to lower without the animal life being disturbed until it was again back beneath the ledge. It looked just the same it did before Gabriel's demonstration.

"I'm so glad I chose Sonancy," Harry said with childlike glee. It was true; Gabriel's skill might be beyond him for now but it was still inspiring.

"Of course, I recommended it." Gabriel winked at Harry, "What I want to work on with you in your concentration on holding a connection. We will talk about whatever while you hold a formation from the water."

"Alright, what formation should I try to hold?"

Giving it a thought, Gabriel sat down on the lush grass beneath him. "Let's start simple, create a ball of any size you want. It must be water though and it must be held at least ten feet above the surface."

With a nod, Harry turned away from Gabriel to look over the water. He closed his eyes and pushed all the details his mind was integrating from this spontaneous trip away. Soon, all that there was was a blankness in his minds eye and Harry pulled up an image of a rippling ball of water.

His thoughts then turned to how it would form, and decided it would be more accommodating to pull from the source instead of creating the water like Gabriel done before. Satisfied with this, Harry raised his arm out in front of him and opened his eyes for the imagery needed.

Harry pondered over a tone he should use and decided to just go with a simple note that fitted what water symbolized; peace. He pushed out the low whistle and he urged that pinch of magic in his gut to rush outwards into the water and make what he was aiming for.

The water in front of him began to ripple outwards, at first, then inwards and a round shape protruded from the surface. Slowly the object rose and the weight of it was taking its toll on his concentration. Harry could understand the practice Gabriel was putting him through. Earlier with Hedwig's cage was nothing compared to this.

The ball was half-formed now and it was still rising. It was not an overly large globe but it was impressive in it's circumference. It was interesting to its black haired wielder that it was rippling from an unseen force. He decided he'd investigate the matter later; he had work to do now.

Now that the ball was effectively above the water slightly, it's size was slightly more than Harry wanted. If he had to guess, it's diameter was roughly five feet across from side to side. Deciding to go with it, he cut off the whistle he was still making since his connection was already established with the mass.

With a noticeable tremor in his arm, he began to raise it to Gabriel's wanted height.

_'God this bastards heavy,' _Harry thought, even his inner voice was huffing in stress.

After a tenuous five seconds, it reached what Harry figured was ten feet. He glared at it, inwardly threatening it to not move from its position.

"Good!" Gabriel exclaimed from where he was sitting. "Come over here and sit while we talk, and try to keep that beauty in the sky."

Harry breathed in deeply to catch his breath; the replenishing of oxygen to his lungs with magic never really satisfies, he realized. He was hooked on breathing normally, he figured, even though he knew that breathing through magic would definitely be handy in the future.

He flopped down beside Gabriel so he could keep an eye on his creation, but he really did need to sit down. That was immensely tiring.

"Now you see the purpose for this training. Got to get you accustomed to the stress this creates. Basically, Sonancy is like working out your muscles at a gym, it takes time to build up the tolerance of more weight, or in this case, magical stress."

"Could this afflict magical exhaustion?"

"Technically," Gabriel conceded with a nod. "But magical exhaustion has many definitions by healers. What do you think it is?"

"I remember talking about it one time in the Hospital Wing with our healer. Pomfrey said if you use too much of our magic, it could cause debilitating fatigue and a migraine."

"Well that just sounds like a night of binge drinking," Gabriel said with a laugh."

Harry snorted. "Truthfully, with what you told me about the manipura it doesn't fit. How do we _have _magic if it is channel _through _us and into a wand."

Gabriel chuckled and slapped Harry on the back which cause the ball to stutter for a moment then still.

"Sorry. I'm just glad you are catching on. It's true that we don't have our own pools of magic in our bodies, we are just conduits like a wand is a way to focus that magic. In truth, when you use to much magic, the," He raised quotation marks with his fingers, "_manipura _begins to tire of overuse. With age, it's toughens and becomes used to more active use of magic."

"That...actually makes a lot of sense."

"Yeah. I told you wizard don't do common sense. Occam's Razor and all that." He waved he right hand airly.

"Occam's Razor?" Harry asked. He never heard of it.

"We are definitely going to a library soon. It basically says to not over complicate things. The simplest reasons are usually the right ones. Wizards love to over complicate things."

Harry snorted, he could think of a few examples to that. He cleared his mind once more when he noticed the wavering his hovering globe did at the thought.

"Yeah, keep your head cleared for now. Once you get used to Sonancy, this will all be second nature. Especially with that new enhanced noggin' of yours."

"You are hilarious, Gabe." Harry retorted dryly while his eyes were locked on the ball.

The blonde gave a short chuckle and stood up to walk around the little island they were practicing on. Harry didn't bother to follow Gabriel on his circuit and just concentrated on his Sonancy.

"Gabriel," Harry began. "How does _this_ magic actually work? I am coming up blank with what whistling does for it."

The only thing that told Harry that his teacher heard his question was the short pause of Gabriel's trotting before continuing again.

"The easiest way to explain it is sound waves. The rarefaction that accompanies the sound from whistling creates a...parallel wave that coordinates the magic in the surrounding area."

"That makes it easier to picture. I'll have to go to the library to get some books on the subject. Sonancy seems similar to what I would think wandless magic is, why is that?"

Gabriel continued on with his third lap around the island, "Wandless magic is different in that it is limited to pushing magic through you without a focus. Different than Sonancy where you join the magic with your _mental _focus."

Harry gave a short nod, but did not let his eyes leave the floating water.

"Alright, I want you to turn it into a disc of water. Keep it floating while you do it. Without the whistling, the magic is still connected to you."

His white shirt expanding and retracted with a intake of oxygen before he blew it out of his lips in concentration. The globe began to reshape, but then stopped and reformed into the ball it started out as.

"Problem?" Gabriel asked.

"No, I just had an idea on how to simplify the change," Harry replied with a smirk. The smirk was matched by Gabriel, catching on to what Harry was going to do.

With a jerk that caused ripples on the surface, the ball began to spin on its axis in a clockwise rotation. With each full spin, the roundness began to stretch and straighten. Soon where a ball was, there now rotated an oval, and then a fat disc.

And then there was a flat disc rotating like a Frisbee, with the exception it staying in place. It more closely resembled a buzz saw in the metallic sheen the water created in its quick spinning.

Slowly the turning halted to show just a flat disc of rippling water in the shape of a disc Gabriel requested.

"Excellent, Harry. I was wondering if you would have caught on to the fact that creating a spin factor helps shape objects from their innate states. Honestly, good show."

Harry responded with a quick smile while keeping an eye on the disc.

With his eyes on the disc, he didn't hear the movement behind him until it was too late. Gabriel leaned over so his head was right over Harry's left shoulder.

"Harry!" Gabriel shouted.

"Jesus, Gabriel!" The disc collapsed and thundered down into the lake where it once came from.

"What the hell was that for?"

Smirking, Gabriel replied, "Because you needed an unprepared distraction to see if you could keep the link with your Sonancy. Apparently it hindered your work. We will work on this, but I think you did phenomenal for your second attempt at it."

Harry grumbled while rubbing his ear, "I still say you are an ass for trying to deafen me. Want me to make another object?"

Gabriel shook his head on his way to the coat rack to retrieve their jackets. He picked up both and tossed Harry his Godfather's jacket before whipping his on with a twirl of his arms.

"Not today - you'll be expecting another surprise from me. I need your unsuspecting for it to work. We'll be returning back to your room and going over plans for next week."

Harry sighed with a disappointed face and put on the jacket in a more stiff manner than the way Gabriel did. He was still getting used to the motor functions of having longer arms and legs.

His Guardian swiftly grabbed his right bicep before a gust of wind swept them up and blew them away on a south-western course. The next thing Harry saw was the familiar room his relatives gave him with the newly returned exception of Hedwig, who gave a cheerful bark of a hello.

"Hey Hedwig," the two men chorused in unison before glancing at each other and laughed at the coincidence. Harry caught his breath from the good bout of laughter and made his way over to his second friend.

"'Ello, girl. Have a good hunt?" An upbeat bark answered and Harry smiled easily before rubbing her head affectionately.

"She says she caught two mice in a field to the east. Good job, Heddy." Gabriel congratulated, and Hedwig seemed to accept the praise and strange nickname with a happy screech.

Harry chuckled and scratched under beak before turning to go sit on the window sill sideways, looking out into the yard where it was still raining. The lawns of the neighborhood were muddy and the drains to the sewers look to be struggling trying to accept all the rain water.

"If it keeps raining like this, the whole island will be under the sodding Atlantic."

Gabriel shrugged both at the protest and to remove his jacket. He threw it over the back of the desk chair before sitting in it and pulled the map back out of his trouser pocket.

"It'll be fine, at least Britain won't have to limit water again. The last reality had to, and you wouldn't stop bitching the whole summer." Gabriel chuckled after he stopped speaking, "I swear, we are the only English person who likes to bathe regularly."

Harry cocked an eyebrow when he looked at him, "One: I don't bitch. Two: That's disgusting, why would someone _not _want to wash?"

"No clue, it's some kind of phobia the British have."

"Britain is weird."

Gabriel gave a laugh and then continued one perusing the map, periodically marking it with a red marker Harry didn't see before.

Harry spoke up, "So where are we going to first in France?"

Gabriel ran his left hand through his still short, blonde hair and blew out air through his teeth. He replied, "I want to make our way to Brittany," he pointed at the map for Harry to see, "so we can travel through their woodlands. Do you know any of France's mythology?"

"Not at all, remember? I have a _stunted _childhood." Harry snorted at the phrase Gabriel used earlier.

"Oh shut it, I was exaggerating at the stunted thing. Except the Pearl Jam. Everyone should experience _them_. Anyways, there is some folklore about Brittany's forests that I want to investigate."

Harry waited, waiting for the explanation. Apparently it wasn't coming as Gabriel continued on look over France, marking places. He decided to just ask.

"Okay I'll bite, what so special about their woods?"

Gabriel looked up once more and smirked, "Took you long enough." Harry huffed in annoyance and crossed his arms.

"You're a tosser, you know that right?"

"Yep," Gabriel remarked cheerily and looked back down at the map, "but the reason I'm so interested in their legends is a creature I've heard about. It's a hobby I picked up, I guess. I go around looking for strange things in my days off from work and report on them; makes me look good for my superiors."

"Of course." Harry rolled his green eyes heavenward, asking why they sent _this _particular angel to work on him.

Gabriel seemed to notice his charge's annoyance and chose to give him more information, "Fine, spoilsport. Ruin my surprise. We're going to search for Bugul Noz, the Dream Shepard. He is supposedly the last of his kind, I want to check up on him."

Harry gave him an incredulous look, "Check up on a mythological being? You make it sound like a doctors appointment."

The blonde haired man snorted and shrugged, "Sorry, I just get curious about these things. Plus I like to make sure they are fine. Earth's history is slowly being replaced and I want to see it all before it disappears."

"You can't help them, can you?"

Gabriel paused his hands movement for a second, a stormy look crossed his face. "I don't like to see animals and beings suffer. If I can help them, I will." He continued tracing a route from northern France to somewhere in the south Harry couldn't identify.

Harry decided to let it go for the moment and went to looking out the window again.

Minutes passed, the only sounds from the room was the quiet squelching of the marker and Hedwig's soft hoots from where she was asleep on her perch. Harry kept his focus outside, stretching his senses to train his new prowess over them. It was odd, he thought once again, to seem like all this time he was asleep, and suddenly to have his eyes opened to world around him.

His eyes caught on to a movement down the street, a hunched over man in shabby robes trying to shield himself from the rain. It seemed Gabriel sense something as he suddenly stopped his tracing and stood up to approach the window next to Harry.

"Well, this is different."

Harry quirked an eyebrow, his eyes still on the figure. "Different?"

"Yeah, different. He is a wizard, but I sense no ill-will from him."

"The blood wards the Headmaster told me of would have stopped him if he meant harm. The question is who he is."

Gabriel chuckled, "That would be true if they were working fully. The ones around here have degraded since you don't actually consider this place a home."

Harry pulled his eyes away from the walking figure to look at Gabriel incredulously.

"Seriously?"

"Dead serious," Gabriel nodded, his eyes now back onto to man crossing the road, "and it looks like our guest is headed this way. Let's go say hello, shall we?"

Gabriel and Harry both threw on their jackets and rushed down the stairs, passing a startled Petunia who was washing the dishes. She held up a soapy sponge in front of herself and the other hand digging around in the water, most assuredly looking for a blunt object to throw.

The suited man glanced at her and continued walking to the front door, Harry however looked at her and warned, "Petunia, go get Dudley and get to your room. We think someone is coming this way." She didn't move, so Harry barked harshly, "Go!"

She gave a squeak at the harsh order and dodged around him on her way to the living room to fetch Dudley. Harry continued to stand beside a bemused Gabriel looking at him from beside front door.

"Why did you warn them?" He asked, confusion still on his face while he looked through the brass peep hole.

"I may dislike them, but I don't wish them harm." Harry shrugged and moved over to peer through the window.

Harry didn't see the pleased smirk on Gabriel's face at the answer, so he continued peering at the stranger who was only three houses down. His black hair nearly fell into his face when he looked at his companion to ask, "Who do you think he is? His robes are rubbish."

Gabriel didn't answer, but he did inhale through his nose, seemingly smelling the area around the house through the downpour of the rain.

His blue eyes glinted and narrowed then he reached into his front pocket of his jacket. Harry saw him remove an object similar to a metal lighter he seen his cousin use.

"Werewolf. Draw your wand, but don't fire unless I tell you to." Gabriel whispered.

Harry's eyebrows shot up to his hairline but did as he asked nonetheless, curious why a werewolf was coming for him. Then something hit him, he knew a werewolf.

_'How could I have been so stupid to forget about him.'_

"Wait!" Harry told Gabriel who was about to open the door, "I know him, his name is Remus, Remus Lupin. He is friendly."

Gabriel cocked his head slightly then laughed, putting back the curious metallic lighter.

"Whoops, forgot about the him. I wonder what he is doing here."

Harry shrugged and went to the door to stand beside Gabriel. He asked if they should go out and meet him.

Gabriel replied, "Let's wait and see what he does. He could be on a Order detail to guard you. The others usually change shifts at midnight, so I doubt he is relieving the one down the street."

His reply was a raised black eyebrow and a curious look. Harry turned to look out the peep hole and noticed Remus was standing at driveway with his hood somewhat raised over his head. He could see Remus' amber eyes were looking up to the window where his room was.

"I think he is looking for me," Harry said questioningly. "Let's go out, I need to speak with him anyways."

Gabriel nodded and added, "Alright, let's go with the story you gave Hermione earlier. Hopefully we can persuade the old wolf to not go tattling on me to Dumbledore."

Harry silently agreed and opened the door to the pouring ran. Gabriel followed him out the door while Remus noticed the two exiting the house, his eyebrows raising in shock at the appearance of Harry.

The two noticed that despite the rain, Remus' robes were dry and concluded that he charmed them. Taking a leaf from his book, Gabriel waved his hand over his body and turned to Harry and did the same, applying a variation of the charm.

Remus' shocked face became even more pronounced when his jaw dropped, it seemed to Harry that Remus concluded that it was really him. The black haired teenager figured it was his werewolf senses paying off.

"Harry?" Remus choked out.

Harry smirked good-naturedly and confirmed with a nod. He asked, "How do I look, Moony?" Harry decided to go with it and did a little pirouette in jest. Despite the situation, Remus chuckled at his antics.

"Good lord, Harry, what happened to you?" Remus inquired with a touch of concern. He, like Hermione, came forward to poke Harry in the chest.

Harry swatted his hand away and chuckled, "Well, apparently my magic pushed my body to grow to what it should be. According to my physician here, Gabriel," he gestured at his 'doctor' with a wave, "it happens from time to time."

The werwolf looked at Gabriel for a second and returned his gaze to Harry.

"I can believe that. It's just..wow! You are bigger than me now." Remus rushed to say and he laughed in pleasant disbelief.

Harry smiled gently at the concern he saw in Remus' eyes and placed his right hand on his shoulder and gave it a squeeze. He chose to appease his curiosity after removing his hand, "Not that I'm against seeing a friend again, but what are you doing here? Last I heard you were out doing...work."

Remus nodded and answered, "I just wanted to come check up on you and see how you were doing."

Sincerely touched, Harry smiled at the notion.

"Thanks, Moony. I'm doing good now that Gabriel has talked to me about things." He saw the startled look on his Remus' face, "And don't worry, he being my physician allows for the confidentiality agreement to be in effect." Remus let out a breath in relief.

This time it was Gabriel spoke up. "It's good to meet you, Remus. Harry has told me all about you and Sirius." He stuck out his hand which Remus shook with a surprised look.

"I'll admit to being surprised that you knowing about my condition you aren't calling the Auror's and trying to hex me."

Gabriel smirked and shrugged a shoulder. "I don't particularly care about afflictions like vampirism and lycanthropy. A infected person is still a person."

Remus chuckled happily and retorted, "It's refreshing to not be looked at in disgust and fear for once."

Harry spoke up, "Let's head inside, it might look a little odd for us to be out here and none of us are getting soaked."

They all turned to return into the house with Remus to Harry's right, where Remus clapped a hand on Harry's shoulder.

Remus asked, "So Harry, what have you been up to since summer started?"

Harry could resist a laugh while they crossed into the threshold of the modest house.

"Remus, you have no idea." Harry managed to get out between his laughter before the door closed.


	8. Chapter 8: Shakespearean Angel

**A/N: **Hey guys, another chapter up after a really long delay. Plenty of reasons for the delay but I'm sure most of you just don't really care. Hopefully, this chapter will more than make up for the gap between updates, it's a good one filled with more twists and even a little action. If you know what I mean. Anyways, thanks to Man of Constant Sorrow for making me snort coke up my nose when I read his review. I really didn't aim for that scene to be humorous, but I could see it when you brought it up. There is a reason I gave Harry the...*cough* Hammer of Thor, so to speak. Think on this: what happens to a species of animal when it's DNA is in conflict other with during reproduction. Just some food for thought. See you all next time!

**A/N-2: **Oh, I am also looking for some art to be done up for this fic. If any of you'd like to do some for me, just message me. Thanks!

_Standard disclaimers apply_

**Shakespearean Angel**

Down a sidewalk in a comely little town, a tall well-dressed man was making his way with seemingly no direction in his ambling. Many of the locals that transverse their town regularly would do double takes at the odd visitor.

His tall frame, built powerfully, was a daunting figure to come across in the out-of-the-way town that not many visited. The shirt and slacks he wore were obviously custom tailored to him, and he wore them well. What many found odd about the man was his raven feathered hair and shockingly green eyes.

The reason his hair was peculiar was because his hair was laid back over his scalp and the way it 'feathered' back behind him. It really did give the impression of a raven with its hackles raised in alarm.

The eyes were odd just on the fact that green eyes were an uncommon trait. They also seemed to look _through_ people who locked eyes with him in greeting.

He would see you, and greet you with a smile, but it felt like he could see all the way down into your soul with those eyes. The residents of Huntingdon were both spooked and mesmerized by them. They did the instinctual thing and hurried away from the man with the searching eyes.

Harry Potter was both amused and slightly saddened at what his presence was causing in the people he came across.

The week was over and he did promise to visit Hermione before he made his way to mainland Europe for his first ever vacation. It was a fast-paced week with his training from Gabriel and the numerous talks with Remus. Harry knew he was stretched thin, but he couldn't wait to visit with Hermione doing things he always wished he could do with her.

Harry was dropped off near the local primary school by Gabriel, and found out he as relatively near Hermione's house by a passerby when he asked for directions. The walk was soothing his mind's rapid fire thought process while he wrestled his emotions down.

During the week, Gabriel talked to him about his affection to Hermione and how he should go about it.

Truthfully, he didn't know what to do. Remus especially didn't help with the heckling that he and Gabriel were prone to do.

Cutting left on the sidewalk to follow Derwent Close, he chuckled at the look on Remus' face when the truth came out.

* * *

Followed into the house by Remus and Gabriel, Harry made his way up to his room after informing his Aunt there was no issues. She still hid in her room regardless.

Harry didn't mind.

Once back into his room after letting Remus in first, he took of his Godfather's jacket and hung it up before plopping down on his bed.

"So Harry, what's your plan for the summer?" Remus asked while removing his own cloak.

Harry put his hands behind his head and chuckled while trying to formulate a 'safe' answer. Before he could answer, Remus suddenly crouched before Harry while glaring at Gabriel.

"Who the hell are you?" He growled out with his teeth bared.

Gabriel for that matter just looked amused and crossed his legs and shot Harry a look.

With an alarmed look that quickly became understanding, Harry laid a gentle hand on Remus' shoulder and reassuringly told him, "It's okay, Remus. Gabriel isn't a threat to me so just relax so we can tell you what has been really going on."

It should have taken only ten minutes to detail the basics, but the incredulity of the situations caused Remus to ask for reaffirmations nearly every other sentence.

"So. You are an angel?" Remus asked with a bemused look.

Gabriel just chuckled and shook his head. "No, I'm not an angel. I _work _with them. If you ever met an angel, you'd know it immediately. They command quite a presence of authority."

"So the reason you smell like Harry is because you basically are Harry. Just not from this...reality?"

Harry gave a quiet laugh while Gabriel nodded an affirmative.

"Yeah, I'm Harry, but not _your _Harry. I forgot to raise a scent distortion to myself, it's the only reason I was given away."

The werewolf gave a snort and leaned back in his chair. "I doubt that would of distorted everything else in your scent. True, you smell like Harry, but you also smell powerful and," he paused searching for a good word. "Timeless?"

Gabriel gave a trademark bark of laughter that Harry was quickly associating uniquely Gabriel.

"That's a good description of what I am. I can't age due to my work thanks to the angels. It can also be described as existing out of time. I've been doing this for a very, _very _long time. According to your understanding of time, anyways."

Remus gave a weary sigh, "I only wanted to check up on Harry and have a chat. Instead I end up meeting an immortal." He looked over at Harry who was lounging on his side on the bed, "this is all your fault, kiddo."

The lounging teen just scoffed and shot back a rude hand gesture in Remus' direction which caused the other two to laugh at him.

Gabriel decided to continue onto a more urgent matter. "As sad as I am to say it Remus, but I may have to shield this conversation to remove the chance of discovery by curious minds."

Remus shook of the mirth at that and adopted a cautious look, "I understand, but what do you mean by shield my mind?"

"You know what Occlumency is?" Gabriel got a nod in reply, "well what I need to do is preform a passive barrier that will both distort and break strong attacks from Legilimency attacks. It won't harm any existing barriers you have, so no need to worry."

Still a tad worried over the idea of someone messing with his mind, Remus reluctantly gave his acquiescence to the shield. He gave a short jump when Gabriel just walked over and tapped him on the forehead with his index and middle fingers. Harry coughed that sounded suspiciously like laughter to the flummoxed man.

"Is that it?" Remus questioned disbelievingly.

Gabriel snorted and retook his favorite chair by the desk. "Of course, what did you expect? Me to start chanting in some dead language and wiggle my fingers in your face?"

"Er, maybe?"

"Sorry to disappoint you, Remmy. Not all magic is long, drawn out things. Moving on, any other questions?"

Remus drummed his fingers on the wooden arm of his chair, his face scrunched up in thought. "What are you planning on doing besides training Harry?"

"We are planning on going on a trip here at the end of the week. See some interesting things, pick up some stuff here or there, you know: the basics."

"Basics?" Remus incredulously queried.

"It was a joke, but the other stuff was not. You're more than welcome to join us, if you want to."

Remus gave it serious consideration but then a look came over his face, not unlike when someone drops as ice cream cone.

"I'm sorry, but with my condition it wouldn't be safe for you two or other people we come across."

Gabriel flung his arms up in the air with a exasperated sigh. "Remus, it's three nights out of three months. Man up, or rather, wolf up. You couldn't harm us even if you wanted to."

The werewolf's eyebrows rose in shock before he asked, "what do you mean I couldn't harm you?"

"Me being what I am, I can permanently connect your mind to your wolf's mind. You'd be in complete control."

"Seriously?" Came the dual reply from Harry and Remus.

Gabriel laughed at the exchange and just leaned back in his chair and smugly replied, "Of course, I'm just the awesome."

Harry rolled his eyes and looked over at Remus, "see what I have to deal with? It's only been three days and I'm already at the point where I want to strangle him."

Remus chuckled and shook his head in amazement. "If you promise that I won't be endangering Harry, I'd be delighted to join you."

The blonde man's eyes lit up in amusement and replied, "I can do that. I also promise to do my best to get you laid."

Harry's room filled with riotous laughter and an older man's sputtering.

* * *

Shaking his head from the memory when a black lorry distracted his attention, he across the road where Hermione's house was located at. It was a nice place, he thought. Fitted what he imagined as Hermione's home being. Simple, yet beautiful in it's subtleties.

Crossing the road after looking both ways, he stepped up to the stoop of the doorways and knocked with his right hand. He turned from the door after a few seconds to look at the rest of the neighborhood while waiting for someone to answer.

Soon enough, he heard heavy steps of someone approaching the door. _'Her father,'_ Harry estimated. He estimated right when the door opened to present a comfortable looking man in his late forties. The same eyes and jawline affirmed that this was indeed Hermione's father.

"Mr. Potter I presume?" Cleo asked with an easy-going smile. He stuck out his hand to shake Harry's which he did so with a cautiously firm grip.

Harry smiled, "You presume correctly, sir. Please call my Harry though, I keep looking for one of my professors with a mister added to my name."

Cleo chuckled and nodded. "The name is Cleomenes, or just Cleo. I have to say though, you'd pass for a mister. You don't look like any fifteen year old I've ever seen."

"Yeah, my magic kind of decided to help repair some damage to my body and went above and beyond where it should of stopped," Harry ran his hand through his hair in a practiced move of nervousness.

Gabriel told him he had to practice some of his old habits to show as little change as possible. His instincts kept yelling at his to stop acting like a blubbering buffoon, but his rational mind agreed with what Gabriel requested.

Following the smiling man into what Harry assumed was the living room, he took in the family atmosphere that radiated from the house. Every where he looked he could see the evidence of all members of the family. One beige long-tailed sweater that he saw Hermione wearing at the end of the year was hung up on the rack by the door. Harry really liked that sweater, it was purely something he could only see her wearing.

Resuming his sweep of the house, he noticed the wink Cleo gave someone around the corner and readied himself for what he was sure was a flying Hermione.

"Harry!"

Chuckling at the poor surprise, he caught her around the waist and spun around in a complete three-sixty and put her on the ground. Smiling down at her, he could understand why he became so enamored by this quiet, yet affectionate woman. White smiles and citrus that could make him smile any day of the week.

"Hey, Mione. What's with all the flying into me randomly?" He knew the answer already, he just liked riling up his best friend.

Hermione backed off with her smile still in place and smacked his left bicep before turning to return to what Harry figured was the kitchen.

"I have to get a running start if I want to hug you proper like. Not my fault you decided to turn into a sequoia tree," she trailed off with a chuckle while sitting next to who could only be her mother.

Cleo laughed along with Harry as they sat around the kitchen's island and he introduced himself to Hermione's mother. "Pleasure to meet you, ma'am." He gently took her hand.

"It's Amelia, Harry. With how many letters Hermione that detail all of your two's exploits, it feels like I know you already." She gave her daughter a knowing grin and winked at Harry who grinned in response.

"Looks like I will have to dump an accomplice when I start on my more arduous adventures."

Before Hermione could berate him, Amelia picked up the response, "good luck with that, Hermione has set her roots into your life."

Hermione groaned while the other three laughed mirthfully at such an apt description.

"Hyena's," Hermione muttered while her friend and family were still cackling at her dispense.

The hours drove from late morning to early afternoon while they all gave Harry a tour of the comfortable home. When three o'clock approached, Hermione decided it was time to go into town and spend the day with Harry like they planned.

"It was a pleasure meeting you, Harry. You can visit anytime, okay?" Amelia told Harry during a loose hug. Shocked slightly by forward nature of Amelia, he returned the hug tentatively.

"I will, ma'am. This is quite a beautiful place to call home." Giving a wide smile, he shook hands with Hermione's father and turned to link arms with Hermione.

Walking towards the sidewalk, Cleo called out from the doorway, "Make sure to be back before nine!"

Instead of responding, Hermione just waved her free arm and continued leading Harry towards downtown Huntingdon.

"So Harry, what's your first stop in Europe?" Hermione asked with curious eyes focused ahead of them.

Harry loved those eyes.

Smirking, Harry replied dryly, "France, Gabriel wants me to see some real magic on our trip to his friends. Oh, and Remus is coming so it should be rather interesting."

"Professor Lupin?"

"The same. He came by the ninth to come check up on me. Him and Gabriel really hit it off and they haven't stopped teasing me since." That drew a slight chuckle from Hermione.

"That doesn't sound like something Remus would do. He seemed to be a...straight arrow?"

Harry guffawed at that deceptive description.

"Trust me, Mione. That is just a cover for his marauder side and when it comes off, watch out. It's a good thing though, I see why Sirius and my father liked him."

Hermione smiled and hugged Harry's bare left arm tighter to her side. The skin she could feel was warmer than she thought was normal. _'There is basically no loose flab on his arm, either.' _she distractedly thought while letting her hand grip his forearm.

"Harry, what really happened to you? You have no body fat on you, that can't be healthy."

Harry gave a sigh, knowing this going to come up eventually during their visit.

"It's the magic, it sped up my matabolism so it burns through the extra fat on my body for energy. I have to keep to a specific diet to stay healthy. It also...swelled my adrenal glands so that's why my musculature is so defined." _'Thank god for those anatomy book Gabriel made me read.' _Harry thought.

Hermione just turned to look up at him and Harry held eye contact for a few seconds before she seemed to accept his explanation. He sighed on the inside in relief.

"You'll explain _everything _when you can. I know it isn't the full truth, but I trust you not to do anything immoral. Just...be careful, please."

_'So much for her believing that.' _He thought with a smirk.

"I could never fool you with a half-truth. I promise to explain everything when I'm able." She seemed to accept that and just continued hugging his arm.

Fifteen minutes after some winding trails and sidewalks, Harry found himself back on the same street he and Gabriel visited a week before for some clothes.

_'Gabriel, you sly bastard.' _Harry chuckled inwardly. He swore he could hear Gabriel's trademark barking laughter in the light wind but thought nothing of it.

Hermione kept pointing random places out on their way into the town itself, giving little critiques of buildings and the history of them. Harry was never really interested in history itself, but with his knowledgeable best-friend describing the towns history, he found he could listen to the topic for ages.

Nodding along when appropriate in the conversation, he was only truly aware of Hermione's gentle, yet firm, grasp of his lower arm while they walked south. The past week had kept him tense as all manners of magical instruction and he had looked forward to today for it all to unwind. It looked like _that _stress had leaked out and was replaced by a different breed of stress; anxiety.

Harry felt her hand fall off his forearm and slid down to his hand where she entangled with his fingers. Giving her a sideways glance, he noted that she just kept talking about the Priory Gardens they were passing through. His lips twitched in amusement, _'sneaky little thing...'_ he thought while trying to restrain a chuckle.

Despite the brief moment of relief from his anxiety, it flooded back into him after it passed. Truthfully, Harry didn't know _why _he was anxious to begin with. Was he anxious for their friendship to become something more? Or was it because he was afraid of this breaking their close friendship? He didn't really think it was either, but something kept nagging at the back of his brain. Pushing it to the side for now, he chose to just survive today for now.

_'Carpe Diem and all that,' _he could hear the expression Gabriel favored so much flow through his head. That time he couldn't stop the chuckle.

"Something funny, Harry?" He noted the defensive tone in her voice and his conscious sighed. He'd really have to work on her self-consciousness in the future. His too, for that matter.

Harry gave her a fond smile. "Nothing directed at you, Mione. Thinking of all this, here with you, just reminded me of something Gabriel keeps drilling into my head. 'Carpe Diem'. Just glad I'm here with you is all." He gave her slender hand a firm squeeze and another smile.

That seemed to catch her off guard for a moment when her eyebrows steadily rose upwards and she turned her head to the left to avoid seeing the slight reddening of her cheeks. Unfortunately for her, Harry's eyes never missed anything anymore nor did he miss the pleased lilt of her lips before she turned her head.

"When did you become such a flatterer?"

Chuckling, he responded in a boastful tone. "It seems to be working." His peripheral saw her head whip around with her mouth agape. That really set him off with a belly full of laughter.

Hermione decided to join him in his mirth instead of a jesting rebuke and pulled his arm closer to her side in doing so. Harry was quickly becoming fond of the position.

Redirecting back to the main street and descending down it, Hermione pulled him to a stop outside what looked like an inn. Harry raised an eyebrow in question.

"It's called Shakespeare at the George. George Inn is its actual name, my parents always come for the yearly tale," she responded to his silent question. "Kind of a family tradition that started when my parents moved here. Everyone of my fathers line has at least one child named after a Shakespeare character."

Harry murmured in sudden recognition, "A Winter's Tale..."

Her face lit up with a perfect smile and curiosity burning in her cinnamon eyes.

"I didn't know you read Shakespeare, Harry." She was still smiling in delight at his sudden realization.

"I picked it up at the library a long time ago when I would escape the Dursley's. It didn't hit me until you said Shakespeare a minute ago. I suspect your father is named after one as well?"

Nodding, she pulled his hand with her on her way towards the inn. "My father's name is actually from a Winter's Tale as well."

His improved memory already told him that fact, but he didn't feel like enlightening her onto the fact that he could recite the play word for word if he had the inkling to. Harry could already see the initial response to the real changes when he told her. Yes, those facts could wait.

Noticing they were performing the Taming of the Shrew this year, Hermione cast him a wry glance and he rolled his eyes. The irony was palpable in it's timing. He had the sudden urge to exclaim a few embarrassing lines as the part of Petruchio to his love, Kate. Of course, his 'Kate' would probably draw and quarter him after the fact, so he ruthlessly squashed those notions.

"Would you like to watch it? They have a performance for tonight around seven." Hermione stated rather excitedly. Harry realized she must be a big fan of Shakespeare.

He gave her a apologetic smile and told her, "I'm sorry, Hermione. Gabriel wants us out of the country at eight and I'm pretty sure this play goes on for more than an hour."

She squeezed his hand and smiled brightly anyways, even though her eyes held a small touch of regret.

"I promise to come back some day and watch it with you. I swear," he said and gripped her hand a little more tightly to relay the sincerity. His green eyes shone a little brighter when he noticed the pleased look in her cinnamon eyes.

_'Damn those eyes.' _Harry thought with a smile that she undoubtedly took for reassurance.

Walking down the road once more, Hermione led him to a little pizzeria that smelled all kinds of appetizing to his nose. He once more cursed his new diet for making him miss out on greasy goodness.

"Does pizza sound good?"

"As long as they have a...healthy side to choose from." He basically spat out.

Hermione, ever the quick thinker, started laughing at his predicament.

"Not my fault you had to go and be abnormal again. Even if it is beneficial in other matters."

He stopped and stared after those words. _'Did she just wink at me? No way would the shy and...she's flirting with me!' _

Still standing outside the doorway, Hermione began to look a little self-conscious as he continued to stare at her with a gobsmacked expression. Harry realized he was making her nervous after her first attempt at causal flirtation so he just smiled brightly and continued into the building with her trailing behind him with a little smile of her own.

Finding a booth near the entrance and placing their orders for drinks, they continued to chat randomly about inconsequential things about their summer so far. Harry figured now was a better time to bring up a matter that has been bothering him lately.

"Hermione, what do you think about what the prophecy entails? Give me your honest opinion." He intoned with his gaze locked on her slowly widening eyes.

"Um, is here a safe place to bring _that _up?" She said while glancing around the room. Only four other people were there, but he already knew that they weren't particularly interested about anything unscrupulous. They were just curious about the formidable looking man with the younger girl in front of him.

"Trust me, it's safe. Those folks are only wondering why a pretty thing such as yourself is accompanying a tramp like me around their quaint little town." He smirked and leaned back into the cushioned backing of the booth.

Hermione rolled her eyes but he could still see the slight twitch of her pale lips. He was getting good at making her smile.

"Fine, you prat. Well, if it is to be believed, and I am _not _totally convinced about it by the way, you are the one who has to defeat him-"

"Kill him." Harry spoke up suddenly while sipping from his water.

That made her face pale considerably and her eyes bulge.

"It doesn't say you have to _kill _him, Harry."

Harry knew this part of the conversation would be problematic. One of the many things he liked about her was also her most frustrating. Her sense of justice was both a godsend and stumbling block.

With a quick sigh, he placed his cup back down onto the table. "Hermione, I don't like it any more than you do. But the fact of the matter is he is going to have to die before this is over. Locking him up in a prison would do little to contain him."

She spoke up heatedly, "and murder is so much be-"

He broke in this time with a hard glint in his eyes. "Is putting down a rabid dog any different? This isn't _murder_, Hermione. This is getting the job done. Hell, this is a kindness he doesn't deserve for all the atrocities he's committed."

Hermione looked down to her hands that were wringing together. Her low murmur was just loud enough for him to hear.

"I just don't want that on your conscious. A good man is what you are and I want nothing more than for you to stay that way."

The words caused a soft smile to break his hard features and he reached over with his own hands to cup hers.

"Hermione, this is more than good or bad. My intention is to end a legacy of darkness he brought with him into this world. I'm not the knight in shining armor, I'm the champion a king would send out to end a war."

The words brought a surprising chuckle from where Hermione had her head ducked down. She looked up and Harry saw the slight dampness of her eyes while she turned her hands to once more hold them.

"When did you become such a philosopher, Harry?" She was trying to diffuse the tension in the conversation with humor, he figured. He liked her even more for trying.

"I figured it was a good time to look into books on morality. Whatever you do, take whatever Nietzsche says with a grain of salt, because that man can ramble on about nothing," he said with a cracked grin that told her he was both serious and joking.

That seemed to cause more questions than answering them.

"I don't mean to sound brash, Harry, but when did you become such an...academic?" She spoke with a curious tone.

He gave her hands another squeeze before leaning back once more. To tell the truth, it was a good question. Since the visit with Remus, he had been going to the local library an exorbitant amount of time. Harry _devoured _books now. He would flip a page and read it so fast his eyes would be a blur.

And the best, or worse he pondered, part was that he _understood _everything he read.

* * *

"Harry, what is better? Knowing everything about your enemy, or understanding him?" Gabriel was back in the chair he seemed to have monopolized on his arrival.

The question was directed towards the man reading on his bed. He looked up at the unexpected question and cocked his head to the side. Harry seen the devil may care side of Gabriel for too long, this serious and straightforward facet was...unexpected.

Closing his book on the study of fauna in Europe, Harry answered hesitantly. "Wouldn't both be better?"

Gabriel gave a derisive snort in reply.

"Think of it objectively, not subjectively. Remove yourself from the equation and look at the _whole _itself. Now answer."

Still wondering where this was going, he answered. "Understanding. Where did this come from, Gabe?"

"The problem I first faced when I started doing this job was that I kept myself in the equation. Every time I went to a new world, I would think I had an obligation to solve the problem myself," he gave a humorless chuckle. "That _subjective _thinking really pissed my superiors off."

Now, Harry having an inkling where this discussion was headed, he straightened on the bed giving Gabriel his full attention.

"Gabriel, if that's true, then why do the angels care about this world so much? I mean, if they keep a hands off approach to it, doesn't it speak of hypocrisy when they put hands on anyways?"

"You have to understand, what they do is different. They never directly interfere with events, they just give little nudges. Keeps the causality of time lines straight."

Harry could feel the beginnings of a headache behind his eyes.

"But why bother at all? Why pay us any attention at all?"

Gabriel looked like he was struggling to say something. The tightness around eyes and lips gave it away.

Finally, he spoke, "Angels were here _before _the beginning. They are like us humans, always asking the same question: why are we here? They wanted help answering their questions and so, they allied with human souls."

"I think we are off topic, once again," Harry said with a chuckle, but the questions were still pounding behind his eyes.

"True. The point I'm trying to make is this: when going against an entity, no matter what it is, make a decision to either understand it or to know it. Choose true or you could end up under the bus."

The conversation spiraled once more to simpler topics, leaving the more complex ones behind.

* * *

"It just came up one day. I think I understand why you like reading so much now." He gave the girl in front of him another chiding smirk.

Hermione snorted unladylike and said, "I always knew you were smart, Harry. I just never seen a passion for it."

"Trust me, I got plenty of passion," Harry almost laughed at the reddening of her face. "The passion is just directed at different aims. Now please, give me your honest opinion on the matter of me ending Voldemort."

She looked somber for a second, as if hoping beyond hope that Harry wouldn't have to become something she detested.

"I just don't want you to become a monster. You had this...understated potential back in school. It could go either good or horribly bad. I am always of the decision that it would go good." The fire in her eyes made them look almost crimson in the low lighting of the pizzeria.

Harry had to smile at her protective side. She still believed in him to do what was right, and that was what he was looking for. If he had to go through this war, he wanted at least one person he fought for to believe in him.

"I also believe in you Hermione to never change. Once you get something into that overachieving head of yours, you don't let go." His fond tone told her he wasn't being rude, just taking the mickey out of her.

Hermione's face became demure with a hint of a smile while she ducked her head back down. Harry reached over and tilted her head back up.

"Never think less of your opinions, Mione. Stand confident in your decisions and you'll _never _fall. I'll be there to keep you up." He stroked her soft chin, feeling the hairs too small to see, and leaned back once more.

The hours moved forward from their conversation and that pizzeria back to the sidewalks leading back to her house. Harry noticed the tightened grip on his right arm as the subconscious denial of him leaving soon. Truth be told, he was of the same disposition.

England was always cold during the night, no matter the time of year. He usually hated the chilled winds but now he was singing their praises. With the almost possessive hold Hermione had on Harry's arm and the close proximity to him, he wished for them to just keep walking till morning.

If only such a flight of fancy could be a reality.

Back in the doorway to her house, they were left alone. Harry noticed her mother peak out the kitchen window on their way up the driveway, and he also saw her give him a smile that told him something more than words could: acceptance.

"Harry, will you continue to write while your gone?" She was fiddling with her dark green blouse that seemed all to thin for such cold weather.

Instead of words, he moved closer and wrapped her within his arms, reassuring her of what was to come. Her thin arms wrapped around his chest while Hermione's face was buried in the crook of his neck. The breath was tantalizing against his skin and he could feel the urge to smash his lips against her's spike once more.

Then she looked up, right into his eyes which were looking down into her curly hair seconds ago. Her face seemed to be getting closer to his, and he noticed she was arching her feet to gain some height. Those lovely arms moved from wrapping around him to sliding up his back to his shoulders, her hands gently pulling him down to meet her midway.

He didn't fight her actions.

Harry met Hermione's lips with his own and he could hear the sigh from her nose over the beating of his own heart. Those hands, still on his shoulders, bunched up the white shirt he chose to wear. It was such a pleasing feeling to inspire such a reaction to such a simple kiss.

His face turned right and the kiss deepened to a more lazy state. It was chaste, yet passionate in the way he wanted this for so long, and now his desire came true. He was kissing his best friend. Hermione Granger was kissing him with the same expression of prolonged waiting finally at rest.

It seemed he wasn't the only one wanting this to happen.

And suddenly it was over. His face followed her's down so she was standing on the flats of her feet again. He rested his forehead against hers and looked upon her face, drinking in the expression of complete satisfaction that she wore.

The corners of her lips quirked upwards and her eyes opened to look into his own. He would never tire of looking into those eyes, that held many things. Intellect, curiosity, warmth, _love_.

"It's rude to stare, you know?" Her whispered words bounced off his lips that were mere centimeters from hers.

"I hope you could get used to it." His voice was gentle, yet pleased at the last few seconds. It said he enjoyed it and hoped he could do it very soon.

Hermione's smile soon bloomed into a full one and she reached up once more to give him a quick peck. Her arms receded back to her sides and she turned to the door, a wistful expression up her now rosy cheeks.

She turned her head to look at him, "write me soon, Harry." Hermione gave one more secretive smile and she walked into her house.

Harry stood there for a minute, just staring at the door his friend, _'girlfriend?' _he wondered, just entered. He was pleased, hell, he was ecstatic. This day went beyond what he was hoping for and he only wished time wasn't so relative as Einstein said it was.

As he was turning around with a goofy grin plastered on his face, he suddenly stilled. He felt something...deep stir across the road. It wasn't any magic he could place but he knew it wasn't natural.

He whipped his hand out in front of him in the position to snap his fingers. _'I hope this trick works...' _Harry thought while his eyes scanned the sidewalk in front of him.

A sudden breeze, suspiciously calming, passed over his face and he heard a voice in that wind.

"_Harry Potter..._"

That definitely got his attention.

He stalked forwards past the Granger's driveway onto the sidewalk opposite the one where he felt the disturbance, his arm still held loosely in front of him.

"Show yourself." He spoke strongly, yet with quiet determination as to not alert Hermione who had just entered the house behind him. _'Of course, no such thing as a perfect day for me." _He thought darkly.

The shadows cast by the silhouette of a fence behind the path shifted slightly, not unlike a veil being rustled by the wind. What stepped out was definitely _not _what he was expecting.

A woman unlike any he had ever seen, clothed in tight light blue jeans and a white Oxford shirt hanging over the him of her jeans, stepped from the shadows barefooted. Her hair was a fiery red that looked like it was flaming with every step she took. When she was on the edge of her sidewalk, he could finally see the shade of her eyes.

Blue so rich in color, her irises could be mistaken for a stormy ocean in a hurricane. It was a blue so pure, it made cut sapphires look dull.

"Who are you?" Despite his hesitancy, the voice leaving his lips were confident.

Then she laughed. But it was akin to bells tinkling mixed with a strong gust of wind. Now Harry felt the fool for being so confident, this woman, or whatever she was, was completely unconcerned for her well being.

"_Worry not, child, I bring no ill will._" Her voice was just like her laugh. Every syllable rung like a bell and carried in an airy fashion.

"You see someone step out of shadows and you might think something is off." His tone wasn't antagonizing, but he was still hoping Gabriel would get his angelic ass over here. Those Guardian duties might come into effect sooner than expected.

"_If I wanted to end you, you wouldn't be whole now._" Those bells in her voice were really starting to grate on his nerves, no matter how appetizing they sounded.

He lowered his hand as he continued to examine her. Then it clicked, something she said rung a bell from something Gabriel once said. _'She could end me...Angels don't fight, they end.' _Harry thought with dawning comprehension.

"You're an angel." It wasn't a question. He could feel the air surrounding them, even across the road, stifled with repressed power. A power that bespoke of destruction and tranquility, a balance that resided within this persons whims.

"_Yes._" She smiled that time, a truly beautiful thing if it wasn't for the odd fact that she was an angel. An angel that just decided to stop by for a chat in the middle of England. _'This makes no sense...angels don't show themselves.' _His mind was ablaze with questions.

"Is there a reason you are, er, here talking to me?"

"_I just wanted to meet the anomaly of the anomaly._" Once again, the damn bells. Her tone sounded vaguely amused that time.

Harry also felt vaguely insulted at being considered an anomaly, even if he already knew that it was true.

"So do I live up to your _lofty _opinion?"

"_Not yet, but you are getting there._"

He just let out an impatient sigh and crossed the road to stand beside her. She smelled like nature unpolluted and it was nearly intoxicating for Harry to be so near.

"So, do you have a name?" Harry said while he turned to face her.

She just nodded and smiled.

"Is it just me, or are all angels and those who work for them snarky little buggers?"

She giggled that time, turning to fully face him like he had done. The giggle was even more more melodic than her laughter.

"_My name is Kateris, and no, not angels have a...snarky disposition._" Apparently she wasn't up to date on modern slang, even though she got the point of the word itself.

"Nice to meet you, I guess. My name is –"

"_Harry. I know, I did just call to you after all._"

Harry rolled his eyes and chuckled despite himself, "It's called being polite. I'd figure it wouldn't hurt."

"So why are you speaking to me, I get wanting to meet me, but I thought the guys up stairs have a hands-off policy in human affairs."

She smirked which Harry thought was odd coming from an angel. Kateris turned and beckoned him to follow her while she walked down the sidewalk back towards the primary school he arrived from.

"_I am not an affiliate of the angels anymore. I left my home to live along humans, trying to find answers to my questions."_

He gave her an incredulous look, "So you are a rogue angel?"

If he thought he smirk was odd, her snort was even more so. "_Whatever you might think of angels is most probably wrong. It isn't an empire were there are traitors or these 'rouges' you speak of. We are just another entity like you._"

"Sorry, never been an angel before. So why the sudden interest?"

He caught the sudden glance shot towards him. It was a curious look that had many unanswerable questions.

"_I've been to many universes in my...retirement. Every Earth is relatively similar to the others. This one is not and I hope it can answer some questions._"

"Well, may I be the first to welcome you to planet strange." He gave an awkward bow while still walking beside her.

Kateris just smiled, showing off her brilliantly white teeth that shone even in the twilight of the evening. He found himself smiling, once more reacting to her mirth.

"_You are an interesting human, Harry Potter. I hope you survive the coming tribulations so we could converse once more._" She looked at him with those eerily beautiful blue eyes that showed both laughter and...concern? _'Why would an angel be concerned for me?' _Harry pondered.

"No need to be concerned, madame. I'm the atypical hero, we don't die until our mission is done. I take it you must take your leave?" The primary school was getting closer, and with no lights on in the building, it resembled something haunting.

"_That could be true for the _other _world's heroes, Harry Potter, but what happens in a world where the rules don't matter any more? And yes, I must go. Your Guardian could act without thinking, thinking that I am a threat." _Harry noticed the definite sound of regret in her words.

Stopping just before the entrance to the school, he turned to his companion. "I hope you find what you are looking for, Kateris. It was a pleasure meeting you. Oh, and next time you want to talk, don't do the whole whispering into my ear via wind trick. It's very...unsettling."

Kateris laughed her bell-filled mirth and squeezed his left shoulder gently which tingled with a surprising warmth that humans couldn't generate naturally. Releasing his shoulder, she turned to walk away with a lazy gait that swung her hips enticingly.

"_Stay safe, Harry. It was nice to...unsettle you." _Her voice once more reaching his ears despite her being a good fifteen feet away _and _facing the opposite direction.

Harry smiled at the obvious joke. "Snarky bint!" He shouted sarcastically and he heard her laughter when he turned around to come face to face with Gabriel.

"What did I tell you about talking to strangers?" Gabriel said while following Kateris with his eyes.

Harry snorted and retorted, "Sorry, _mother_, won't happen again. Not my fault you ditched me to the angel ten minutes ago when she first popped up."

Gabriel, seeming pleased with the vanished angel, turned to roll his eyes at Harry and smirked. "Yeah, I tried to get to you when I felt your anxiety spike. She must have...held me at bay, so to speak. At least it was Kateris, I _somewhat _trust that woman to not start smiting smart ass teenagers."

"Hey! I'm pretty sure she had the hots for me. She took to my witty intellect and charming personality like a fish takes to water."

Gabriel blew out his nose in a way that it resembled a laugh. "Yeah, she is one of kind, that one. She used to be stationed in the combat oriented division. They always retire philosophical angels and Guardians with a lot of questions and existential crisis'."  
"Nice. Did you know her personally?" That was something that always got him curious. How little Gabriel actually spoke of others like him and the angels he worked for.

"A little, she used to come by my house and relax. Drove me and the wife into hysterics when our male friends would swoon like she was a full-blooded veela. She's got a great sense of humor, but has a nasty temper when you get on her bad side."

Harry sighed. "I could tell, I mean the power she radiated was almost suffocating," he said with a minor inflection of being impressed. "Yet she seemed, I don't know, almost like she was on vacation. It was odd; never expected an angel to be like her."

"Angels aren't that different from humans. Don't say that out loud to other angels though, some would take serious offense to that."

He could only imagine the problems a pissed of angel could cause in his life. Harry already had enough trouble as it is, an all-powerful being with a grudge would be something he could do without.

Gabriel grasped his bicep and once more they were drifting through the winds back his tiny room, where more that likely Remus was double checking everything. Harry never realized how much of a worrier Remus was until he truly got to know him in the past week. From the little Sirius told him of their days at Hogwarts, it fitted Remus' personality perfectly.

"That's a bit of nifty magic," the werewolf said from where he was stocking a shrinkable cooler. "I call seconds on learning it after Harry."

His guardian groaned as he released his arm and dramatically flopped into his chair. Between Harry and Remus, they have been heckling Gabriel over the tiniest things he did. It was actually mostly a game now seeing who could cause the largest outburst, and since Gabriel wasn't being fully forthcoming about details, the questions at least served a purpose.

A purpose to endlessly entertain them both, but a purpose nonetheless. And if they were being honest, they were sure Gabriel got a kick out of it as well.

Harry was snapped out his thoughts with the crack the cooler made when Remus kicked the hatch closed.

"We ready to go, Remus?" Gabriel asked while he was rooting elbow deep in on of his coat pockets.

Remus nodded and pulled on the brown leather jacket over his thick wool sweater. His blue jeans were covered in a similar brown leather chaps that would protect his legs against the cold and they engine of his bike.

"We're all good to go. We just have to needle the info about tonight out of Harry then we can go." The thing that amazed Harry was Remus' ability to keep a straight face, even when cracking a joke. He took a liking to his dry humor, but when it was aimed at you, it was a serious pain.

Gabriel looked up at Harry and smiled deviously. "Too true, my good man. So, _Harry_, how did your little rendezvous with Hermione go this evening?"

He shook his head and began walking towards the door, "Remus, you're an ass. Gabriel, you can bite my ass. I need to change into my gear so excuse me, _ladies_." It always dumbfounded Harry by how much those two were gossips when they got together to try and embarrass him.

Pausing to kick the chuckling werewolf in the back of the knee and watching him crumble with satisfaction, he made his way to the bathroom to don his new clothes.

Closing the door behind him, he could hear the raucous laughter coming from Gabriel. Harry chuckled and pulled of his dress shirt and replaced it with a regular white tee. He then pulled on his thick gray cashmere sweater that Gabriel _made _him buy that he thought looked ridiculous. The thrice damned stand collar itched despite keeping his lower face warm.

He unbuckled the belt holding up the gray slacks and let them drop and stepped out of them. Grabbing the only pair of jeans Gabriel allowed to pick out and actually buy, he stepped into those and pulled them up, not bothering to buckle them. He then opened his duffel bag to retrieve the custom chaps he ordered from the store they picked up Gabriel's and Remus' bike from. The leather leggings were identical to Remus' but they were altered in color to match the same crimson of his godfather jacket.

Once those were on, he threw on said jack over the cashmere and glanced into the mirror. No matter how many times he looked into it and saw his reflection, he still couldn't believe it was him looking back at him.

Walking out of the bathroom with the expanded duffel bag slung over his shoulder, he went into his room to see that Gabriel already changed as well. Gabriel looked up from where he shoving his previous clothes into his own duffel.

"Not bad, I'll make you into a respectable biker yet," he said and winked. If Gabriel was a 'respectable' bike, Harry would walk into the Black Lake during winter.

"Shut it, Gabe. You two ready to invade France, yet?"

Remus chuckled from where he was reading a book on French magical countryside. "We aren't going anywhere until you tell us about your evening with the charming miss Granger."

Harry groaned and threw his bag next to the other two. He flopped down onto his bed and looked over to the empty perch where Hedwig usually resides. He asked a rather redundant question, "you think Hermione would mind watching after Hedwig for the next few weeks?"

Gabriel shrugged and Remus gave him a look telling him he knew of a diversion when he say one.

"Fine, we went around that little village we visited last week, Gabe. Something tells me you already knew she lived there, so don't even deny it," Gabriel's mouth snapped shut from where he was about to retort and shrugged. "And after that, I walked her home and we kissed. End of evening, can we go now?"

"Huh, imagine that. Cough it up, Remus!" Gabriel crowed while Remus begrudgingly flipped a sickle towards him.

"Remus! You bet against me?" Harry said with a hurt look upon his face. Of course, Remus knew it was faked, knowing Harry has bet on even more uncouth things in the past week.

Remus smirked and went back to reading his book.

"Twat." Harry spat and sat up on his bed to finish lacing up his thick-soled boots.

A few minutes later, the three men were out of the driveway flipping similar switches and prepping for the inevitable long ride to France.

Harry tugged down the goggles that were impervious to the elements and granted eagle-eye vision on instinct when need. He fell in love with them as soon as he saw them on the accessory shelf when they visited Fowlers.

Just before he hit the ignition and revved the engine to get it running smooth, Gabriel spoke up, "So did you get any tongue?"

Remus broke down into a fit of laughter and Harry just shook his head and mashed his thumb against the switch that caused a great rumble from his bike. He _really _hated it when Gabriel just wouldn't let certain things go. Like when he caught Harry peeking at a particularly fit jogger at the park by the library. He sometimes wished strangulation would effect the annoying Guardian Angel.

"Oh come on, Harry! I need some juicy details for this _long _trip!" Gabriel yelled over this fluctuating rumbles in time with Harry as he throttled the accelerator lever in his right hand.

Harry flipped both of the laughing men the bird and shifted into gear and gunned down the road before any more scandalous questions to could be asked in a loud and obnoxious fashion.

_'Bloody angels,' _Harry thought as he kept gaining speed for the initial take-off.

He really didn't need so many problems in his life.


	9. Chapter 9: An Itchy Situation

**A/N: **Here's another update, ladies and gents. This chapter gives _tons _of clues as where this is headed. Oh, don't take things for face value because I guarantee you that what you think is going on, really _isn't _what's going on. Just thought you should know that before you start kicking around ideas. I'm also still looking for an artist to give some faces to the characters. Because I'm not running off the film adaptations of things, it can get pretty unfocused for the readers. Hope you enjoy!

_Standard disclaimers apply_

**An Itchy Situation**

Starring at the flickering flames of the campfire Gabriel lit hours ago, Harry was deep in thought about the future and what it held for him. His future was always a foggy ideal and it _always _came down to Voldemort. But with the arrival of his alternate self and the subsequent return of the elves, it was now even more elusive than before.

Harry shifted his weight on the stuffy chair that was out of place in the deep Paimpont Forest of Brittany. He figured it was just another quirk of Gabriel's to put a cushioned, high-backed chair in a forest where it had no place being. Nonetheless, he could feel his lips involuntarily stretch upwards.

His mind was a mess, Harry knew this, but he was working under Gabriel's tutelage to put an order to the mess. The capacities it now held were daunting and it was driving headaches to become a common occurrence. Speaking of headaches, Harry reached up with a hand and massaged his temple while continuing to gaze into the hypnotizing blue of the everlasting bluebell flames in front of him.

Just another quirk to tally under Gabriel's docket.

The trip had been easy enough so far, the only problem being a bad case of dead-legs from riding his godfather's Triumph for so long. The prickling feeling after they reached the coast was excruciating. The view had been worth it, though.

Lush greens, yellows, and reds greeted their arrival in the dense woodlands. Low rolling hills covered with the greenest grass Harry had ever seen were visibly swaying with the gentle breeze. But the trees were what truly caught his attention. The tall and majestic oaks and beeches with their spindly limbs reaching towards the sky seemed to draw him in.

When they landed a second time in Paimpont after stopping at the coast, Gabriel filled in both himself and Remus of the historic forest.

The forest held many creatures and animals of both worlds. The one Gabriel was wanting to find was Bugul Noz, a fairy spirit that, while hideous in appearance, was quite kind and docile. Of course, Gabriel was wanting to keep the rest of the facts a surprise.

Shaking of the wandering his mind was doing, he leaned back in his chair trying to get comfortable. The chair was exceedingly comfortable, but lately something had been keeping his body from getting completely relaxed on any surface. Mainly, much to his consternation, his shoulder blades were itching and so were his forearms and calves. He was hoping it was just another side-effect of the changes Gabriel enabled.

Shifting his back once more he turned his head towards a snapping of a twig where he saw Gabriel approaching. He knew he had been awake for about half an hour now and was feeling curiosity flowing through the bond between them.

"Why am I feeling uncomfortable through a bond? Don't tell me you decided to manhandle yourself in public this time." Gabriel said as causally sat down in another out-of-place chair adjacent to him.

Harry rolled his eyes and replied, "Stop thinking dirty thoughts about me. You. Us? Whatever, you get the point."

Gabriel grinned but soon his face fell into one of concern as he watched Harry itch his right forearm.

"Why are you so itchy? Didn't get into any poison ivy, did you?"

The black haired teen shrugged and placed his arms on the chairs arms to keep himself from agitating his arms anymore.

Gabriel cocked his head to side and asked, "Do you want me to do a scan and see if I can pinpoint the cause?"

"Go for it," Harry noncommittally retorted. The need to itch was beginning to drive him crazy. The only reason he didn't resemble a person afflicted with eczema during his trip to Hermione's was a liberal use of an anti-itch cream he bought.

His guardian approached from his chair and put both his hands hovering over his temples. Gabriel closed his eyes and began to murmur under his breath so quietly that Harry couldn't discern what he was saying.

Before he could react, Gabriel was violently tossed up and _over _the bluebell campfire and deposited in a smoking heap in front of the third chair. Harry let out a startled yelp and rushed around the fire and knelt beside his friend and tried looking for any signs of life. He didn't see any visible injuries besides the light haze coming off Gabriel's arms and hands.

"Gabriel! Gabriel?...Remus, get your furry ass out here!" He yelled, causing the snoring werewolf to fall out of his bed with a muted thump.

Harry looked into Gabriel's eyes and could see the glazed look to them while they were looking every which way. Remus hurried over in a pair of loose sweatpants and knelt of Gabriel's other side.

"Harry, what-oh god! What happened to Gabriel?" Remus asked, his eyes wide with panic.

"I don't know! He was checking to see why I was so itchy and then, _wham_, he was airborne!" Harry was snapping his fingers in front of Gabriel's face while filling Remus in.

"Well he is still breathing, we should get him to his bed," Remus stated warily, looking at the steam coming of Gabriel's appendages.

The werewolf gingerly put an arm under Gabriel's knees and upper back and lifted him effortlessly, and hurried to the tent to where their rooms were located.

Harry followed behind and had to duck quickly from knocking his head against low frame of the tent entrance. The tent, like at the Quidditch Cup, was internally expanded to hold what looked like a three bedroom apartment. Remus got it as a gift from Harry's father during their Hogwarts years so they could go camping during the full moon, when he explained.

Going past the modest kitchen and to the furthest door, they entered into Gabriel's room that he rarely used to sleep in. Apparently, being a Guardian Angel afforded him no need to sleep, but he said he liked to sleep when he had the time because he missed the sensation of it.

Harry just called him lazy.

Putting the blonde haired man down on top of the comforter, Remus and Harry backed off to watch over him and hope he would snap out of it soon. Neither knew what to do in this case, seeing as Gabriel wasn't technically human anymore.

"Remus, what should we do?" Harry queried with his eyes still locked on Gabriel's face. His blue eyes were still glazed over and moving erratically.

"I have no clue, I only know the basic healing charms and I still don't know if they would work on him."

Standing there, not wanting to leave their friend's side, they waited to see if he would come out of the weird trance he was in. The smoke had stopped rising and Gabriel was now, for all appearances, sleeping. His breathing had evened out and his eyes were finally still and closed.

Figuring the crisis had been diverted, Remus stated he was going to go back to sleep and Harry volunteered to keep watch over his friend.

Sitting in a squashy armchair beside the bed, the teen was laid back in it and keeping his focus on any changes to Gabriel's condition. Slowly, his eyelids were becoming heavier and heavier while trying to stay vigilant. It seemed to Harry now that he had something external to focus on, the itching had become a dormant thought and was keen on catching up with his sleep he needed.

* * *

_All around him was the sound of rustling feathers, as if a multitude of birds had just taken flight. A soft yet deeply resonating horn was being blown in the distance. _

_He couldn't see anything around him, but he could feel the call of horn pulling him in a direction for something important. He wanted to go and follow the sound but he couldn't remember how. _

_Everything was new, yet familiar, and was driving him mad with tension._

_Chanting now in deep guttural sounding language was rising with the horn. _

"_Who are you, child?"_ _A whispered voice asked from the darkness. _

"_I...I don't know. Where am I?"_

_It seemed like an eternity in that deep abyss full of horn blasts and chanting, waiting for the reply._

"_Hello?" He called out into the darkness._

* * *

Harry jerked awake, breathing in deep gulps of air that he didn't know he needed. _'What was that place?' _he thought, trying to hold onto the dream that was slowly slipping through his grasp.

But no matter how hard he tried to hold onto it, it just kept getting more fragmented. More undefined until it was barely comprehensible. He swung his head to the bed in front of him where the sound of rustling sheets caught his attention.

Gabriel was awake, it seemed, and he was groaning while holding his head in his left hand.

"Ugh, that was...unpleasant," he stated while massaging his temple.

Harry had to ask, "What happened?" Gabriel looked up sharply just seeming to realize he wasn't alone in his room.

He continued to just stare at Harry with this indiscernible look upon his face, clearly flummoxed by his young charge.

Finally he replied, "Truthfully? No clue, all I remember was beginning to scan you and then feeling of...something forcing me away. Quite hard if the bump on my head is anything to go by."

Harry couldn't help but look a little sheepish, despite not know if he was truly to blame for the attack.

"I'm sorry, Gabe. I know as much as you do. You got some pretty good air time though," Harry cracked, trying to ease the situation.

Gabriel sighed and sat up straighter, groaning pleasurably with the pops sounding from his back.

"Harry, this isn't good. I've never failed to scan someones body before," the blonde said while gazing at Harry queerly. "Whatever is going on with the itching, it's linked to this force that knocked me out."

"Of course, something else weird to add to my life." Harry stated dryly.

Gabriel managed a slight chuckle and shrugged. "Who said being weird was a bad thing? I mean, look at me; I'm married."

It was Harry's turn to chuckle. Despite the temporary levity between them, questions plagued his hungry mind. "Do you have an idea whats going on?"

"Like I said, no. This is completely new to me." He gave an apologetic smile, "like most of everything else of this universe."

Harry only gave a resigned sigh and a shrug at the normality of his abnormality. It seemed to be on a increasingly linear scale as of late.

"I may have to take this up with someone who knows more about such things," Gabriel stated more to himself than Harry. "Would you be against someone taking a gander at your...itching problem?"

_'Leave it to Gabriel to make a lude joke about something like this,' _Harry morosely thought.

"Go for it, when would you like to do it?" He saw the smirk spreading of Gabriel's face, "and I don't mean it that way, pervert."

"Fine, ruin my fun. I'll get someone now and get it out of the way. I'll be back in a blink of an eye."

Harry nodded, despite being adverse to being poked and prodded by a stranger.

True to his word, Gabriel seemed to _blink _from his place on the bed and reappeared on the other side of the mattress accompanied by a peculiar looking man. To Harry, the man looked ethereal as if a strong wind would carry him away. But the more Harry observed, the more he saw the differences between a human and whatever this man was.

Long, straight brown hair flowed down his back in a perfect fashion that most women would kill for. His skin was a pale, almost translucent, white without any visible imperfections. The eyes were one the more odd things about him, though. They were almond shaped with bright brown irises that seemed to look directly into your soul.

There was also his elongated ears.

Gabriel motioned to what Harry guessed was an elf. "Harry, I'd like you to meet Haedorin," the elf gave a slight bow in greeting. "He works with me in the guardian department as a contractor for special cases like these."

Harry gave a little gamely wave and introduced himself, "Hello Haedorin, as you could probably discern, I'm Harry the anomoly."

His new guest just gave Gabriel a smirk and gave a soft laugh that resonated calm into the room. Harry thought his laugh would be a neat trick to have at a party.

"It seems this alternate has your disposition, Harry," Haedorin admonished Gabriel and then turned to address the 'anomoly'. "It's a pleasure to meet you...Harry. Yes, I believe I pity you for the confusion these tasks must generate." He once more directed the last sentence at Gabriel.

Gabriel laughed loudly and slapped the elf on the back who looked affronted at being manhandled in such a way. "Oh lighten up, Haed. You are never these polite when we go drinking."

Haedorin rolled his eyes at Gabriel's antics and replied with a clipped tone, "the _reason _I was impolite when we last went out was because _you _orchestrated for my drink to explode in my face."

The accused man just smirked and winked at his charge. Harry gave a beleaguered sigh and asked, "I take it Gabriel is always this way and not just giving me a hard time?"

"Gabriel?" Haedorin swiveled to face his associate. "You told your alternate to call you Gabriel? You know the _real _Gabriel will be upset you are besmerching his name." He stopped to think for a moment, "again."

The twice accused man just shrugged nonchalantly. "What can I say? I love to ruffle that angel. Anyways, he secretly likes me, he just likes playing haughty to keep up appearances."

Harry could only chuckle at the absurdity his Guardian Angel seemed to indulge in.

Haedorin only gave that calming laugh again and nodded, "true, but we love him for it. He is at least an angel with a decent sense of humor." He turned to look at Harry and queried, "so what seems to be the issue? _Gabriel _only said that he was expelled trying to scan you."

"That's basically the only thing we know about it. For the past day or so I've been really itchy on only select spots on my body. He tried to scan to see if it was just something residual from here in France and then he was forced away." Harry paused and shot Gabriel a smirk, "he was also comatose for close to five hours."

Haedorin looked to be chewing over the problem and muttered, "interesting."

Gabriel was never the most patient and asked, "do you have any idea what it could be?"

"I'd have to do a scan like yourself to find the root cause, although I'm more self-preserving than yourself and I'm against doing so. But I will do a surface reading." He began to dig in a satchel that looked to be made out of animal hide.

What he pulled out was something Harry didn't expect he would. A long, wooden smoking pipe and a bag of what looked like black daisies, along with a clay mortar and pestle.

"What's with the pipe?" Harry asked, his curiosity piqued.

Ignoring Gabriel's shameless smirk, Haedorin responded. "It's for you to inhale the crushed blacklyst petals and exhale the smoke onto the area irritating the skin. It will reveal the aura of whatever ails the skin, whether it be malevolent and benign."

"So I have to smoke some weird flower? Why?"

"Because when you inhale the smoke, it attunes to your personal signature making it more reliable in doing a diagnostic of a plight." He paused from where he was crushing the flower's petals and snapped Harry a sharp look, "Do _not _smoke blacklyst as a hobby, it can be very detrimental to your health in large doses."

Harry just nodded in agreement, truthfully he never had much desire to start smoking as a hobby.

Haedorin finding the petals sufficiently crushed, he packed the pipe with a pinch of the black ash and held it out for Harry to take. Instinctively knowing what the elf was wanting, he put the lip of the pipe between his lips and waited for the flame to inhale.

The elven healer snapped his fingers and a small flame formed in the palm of his hand which he held sideways for Harry to ignite the petals.

"Breath in deeply and hold it for three seconds then exhale the smoke on your right arm where you are troubled."

Harry gave a curt nod and ignited the petals with a slow, yet deep inhale of breath. The dizzy feeling that overcame him wasn't expected, but he worked through it and inhaled until he couldn't anymore. Holding the smoke in his lungs while it worked it's brand of magic, he rolled his tongue working through the slight tangy and sweet taste.

"Interesting flavor, I know." Haedorin said with an amused glint in his brown eyes. "You can exhale now," as he took the pipe out of Harry's hand.

With another nod, Harry raised his right forearm a couple inches away from his face so he could see what would happen. With a long gust of breath, a hazy smog of grayish-white smoke drifted until it attached itself directly where Harry was having an issue.

It was odd, Harry thought, feeling the smoke _latch _onto his arm unlike what a amorphous cloud should do. It was like a smoke of jelly that turned and twisted with the slight wind from the mouth of the tent, yet held onto the section it attached itself to.

Suddenly, among the gray smoke, a sparkling formed on the skin of Harry's forearm that stretched from his wrist to about two inches down from his elbow. The shimmering continued until a burst of white tendrils flowed from beneath his skin, writhing around like a living thing.

_'What the hell?" _Harry thought while he stared wide-eyed and more than a little freaked out.

From the sudden exclaim of Harry's thoughts from Gabriel, it seemed he wasn't the only one shocked at the mass on his arm. Haedorin's face also showed a mixture of peculiar emotions. Harry recognized the shock, the intellectual curiosity, and...fear?

That drew him up short, so he asked what was on the elf's mind. "What's wrong, Haedorin?"

The elf gave a little jerk and narrowed his eyes at Harry as if he was intriguing problem. "I must be frank, Harry. This is not something which I've come across before, but the aura of the...infection has resemblances to aura's I've seen before."

Hope bloomed slowly in Harry and he asked, "what is the aura similar to?"

Haedorin just continued to look between Harry's face and arm. He sneaked a quick glance and Gabriel and returned his eyes to Harry.

"The aura is akin to," he paused as if he what he was about to say was crazy, "to an angel's aura."

There was silence as Harry felt the hope that was in him dwindle and die.

"Are you serious?" Gabriel soundly yelled more than questioned.

Haedorin gave a simple nod and followed the struggling _thing _on Harry outstretched arm with his eyes, but didn't make a move to touch it.

Gabriel huffed and crashed down onto a chair by the bed beside Harry and held his face in his hands. He looked up at the healer and asked, "is it harming him?"

The elf shrugged and sat back on his chair opposite of Harry with a thoughtful look on his face. "The strange thing is, it isn't damaging. It seems to be...shaping something. I have no idea what it could be shaping, but it is portraying something that is."

Harry eyed the mass again to see if he could see what Haedorin saw. To him, it looked like it was just aimlessly roaming through the skin of his forearm. It was disconcerting to know this was in his arm, but he didn't really feel threatened by it. More irritated than anything, the more he thought about it.

"I don't feel particularly fearful of it," Harry said suddenly.

Haedorin just arched an elegantly shaped eyebrow in question to his statement.

"I don't fully understand it, but it doesn't feel threatening."

The two men with him just shared a look and Haedorin waved his hand to dissipate the smoke. The entity in his arms turned translucent, and then faded from view and Harry finally put his arm down, only to raise his left hand to hold his head.

"This is going to complicate matters, isn't it?" He questioned.

Looking at Gabriel, he could see him nod while his companion only gave a one-armed shrug. Seeming to be stuck on the issue at hand, Haedorin told them both he'd go back and see if he could dig up any relevant cases. With a nod to both Harry and Gabriel, he twisted a similar silver ring on his finger and disappeared without a sound.

Once they were alone, they could both hear the rumbling snores of their resident werewolf and shared a snicker.

Gabriel looked at Harry from his seat and drawled, "well, I have to hand it to you. You are, by far, the most interesting Harry I've ever met."

Harry stood from the chair and waved his hand flippantly.

"Not my fault I'm more awesome than you."

A guffaw from the still sitting man was his reply before he spoke. "Right, I'm pretty sure my status as a guardian angel _and _friends with legendary and mythological people outranks your level awesome. Don't worry, you'll get there soon enough it seems."

Harry flipped him the finger and made his way out of the room towards the front of the tent. Stepping out on to dewy grass, he could see the faint hint of light blues and reds touching the sky towards the east. It was quite an amazing sight in the French forest, and the beauty of the area surrounding them always stole his breath when he let his senses expand.

Expanding his senses was another trick Gabriel was teaching him and the benefits of it was both a boon and a headache. While it gave him almost three hundred and sixty degrees awareness of his environment, it also could overload his perceptions and create a monster headache that would last for hours.

Deciding to forgo his recent indulgence of the skill, his long legged gait took him towards a babbling brook about five minutes away from their camp site. Sitting on a smooth rock, he stared almost singularly at a rock beneath the waters surface while his mind wandered on the latest development.

He really wished Hermione was here to help him wheedle out a rough estimate of what was going on with him. Even with his increasing brain facilities, he still lacked the raw knowledge of multiple subjects that Hermione seemed to possess. Give Harry a few days in a reputable library and he could probably pick up most of everything it could offer.

Truly, he missed Hermione not just for her intellectual might alone, but the comfortable relationship they shared. _'The new romantic angle is not a bad thing either.,'_ he thought with a chuckle.

Feeling heat hit the back of his exposed neck, he turned his head slightly to see the sun finally touching the horizon and was already a quarter of the way up. With a stretch to loosen up his legs, he jumped up and started making his way back towards the tent, awkwardly scratching the middle of back back.

When noon was reached, they packed up their individual belongings into their own packs, or in Harry's case, a satchel. Looking at Gabriel, Harry figured the man to be almost of a sugar high when he started detailing the plan for the next couple of days.

"Alright! Now that we are set to go out and find ourselves a beastie, let's go over the ground works. The Bugul Noz will call out to us to warn us of his close vicinity, so do _not _attack him when you see him. He is peaceful, but from what I've heard, he is right ugly so suppress that urge to fight." He looked over at a contemplative Remus, "oh, and it could be helpful if you could that wolf nose of yours to good work and point out if you catch something with it."

Remus rolled his eyes but nodded regardless.

"We will be making our way west through the trees behind me," Gabriel threw a thumb over his shoulder. "The main purpose of this is to make contact with Bugul Noz and see if he can tell us anything interesting about the forest."

That had been something both Harry and Remus questioned Gabriel about. The single-minded tenacity to meet Bugul Noz that he sported was more than a tad suspicious but Harry had let it go, sensing nothing malevolent through their bond. Harry just hoped things wouldn't blow up in their faces.

Harry figured, with more than a little self-depreciation, that with him here, things were bound to be bungled up somehow.

* * *

While the boy-who-lived was over a thousand miles away from his school, a certain headmaster was not. Albus Dumbledore was following a pastime he was rather fond of; a leisurely stroll around the Black Lake. Although this was a time he usually marked for relaxation in his admittedly stressful life, his mind was racing over the information he gather the past week.

First was the magical shifting of the nexus points of magic the world over, then there was the development a team of researchers discovered south of Greenland.

Directly where the nexus points were converging.

It made no inclination to the likely outcome once they all reached the point, but from the odd behavior of the weather over the week, and the even stranger actions of some of the some animals, it was going to be big.

The issue was whether it would be good or bad to the coming war in Britain was facing.

Dumbledore wanted nothing more than to put the matter out of his head and focus on the problem of Voldemort, but he could shake his gut-feeling that something life _altering _was coming.

Putting the matter away for a moment he ruminated on his plans for the rest of the summer. He had already raced through the various forms and notifications that his job entitled at the school so he could move onto the real crux of his plans.

The Horcruxes.

He had made an educated guess to the amount his former student had created and it appeared to be the correct estimate. Six of those unspeakable creations were tethering the brilliant psychopath to this plane of existence. Seven, if his worst fears were realized.

A journey two years ago to the graveyard where Harry Potter was utilized in manufacturing the rebirth of Tom Riddle Jr. led him onto a unexpected discovery. Many a year he had tried to use his government contacts and his position as Chief Warlock to find the lost house of the last of the Slytherin line. He never expected to find it only _one _mile away from the graveyard.

But what he found was more than a disappointing, for what he expected was a veritable mansion with reptilian epitaphs littering the property. But what he found was a hovel that even the poorest man would abandon. The issue with an auror and a Gaunt reported back in the forties had been greatly exaggerated it seemed.

Despite that, he investigated the sight when he could spare the time to do so, and in doing so he came to suspect that something had been hidden there. Taking notes of information on the liberal amount of wards and protection, he began to pick them apart piece by piece to gain entry.

With the previous year being such a fiasco with the Ministry, Voldemort trying to gain entry into the Department of Mysteries, and a sycophantic woman trying to usurp his position as headmaster, it had been a very trying year. Thus, he was unable to complete his incursion into the shack.

Now that everything was in some semblance of order, he had made the journey to Little Hangleton three days previous to discover a most unfortunate setback.

There was nothing in the shack.

Of course, his spellwork told him that there _had _been something of malignant intent there recently, but now it was gone and presumably out of touch. The main thing that concerned the headmaster was who had removed the object. If it was Tom, it would probably be a the bottom of the Laurentian Abyss to protect it from being discovered.

If it wasn't Voldemort, that meant there was another player in game now. One that didn't answer to Albus or Tom, and _that _could be a problem.

He wouldn't be ungrateful of the help if the removal was for it to be destroyed, but he still couldn't suppress the shiver than ran down his back at the thought of ransoming a piece of the Dark Lord's soul. There were plenty of fools in the world that would be self-serving enough to do it.

Pausing his trek around the lake, he sat down on a fallen tree that was covered by moss. He loved this land where it was a refuge for students, creatures, and all matters of life. It wasn't a beacon for the light that most thought it was, it was more of a place where one could go if in trouble and needed aid. Light or dark were welcome, as long as the neutrality of the land was kept between the factions.

Taking his sparkling blue wizards hat, covered in shooting stars of luminous white, in his hand he placed it beside him on the log. Albus chuckled at the thought that many thought him crazy because of his choice of clothing. If anyone would ever ask, no one ever did, why he wore them, he'd tell them that they eased his mind from the bleak facets of the wizarding world.

He was getting old, Albus admitted that. But it wasn't the tiredness of an old man wanting to live the rest of his days doing nothing but relaxation. He was tired of the constant struggle. A struggle that was always tipping the balance one way or the other and it was a weary thought.

At a younger age, he thought he could remedy that. But like all naïve ideals of the young, it was not to be. It only brought him heartache and nightmares.

Sighing, he reached into his robes and pulled out his long wooden smoking pipe. Not many knew of his little habit, but he wouldn't care even if they did. Funnily enough, if any of those that did know read any literature by Tolkien, he'd probably be called cliche.

With a twitch of his whitewashed wand in his right hand, the pipe began to smoke and he thoughtfully took a drag of the murleaf he became attached to long ago. The sweet smelling smoke billowed around his thin lips and he closed his eyes in relish of his vice.

Opening his eyes, he felt a little more chipper than at the beginning of his walk and his mind now calm against the frustrating questions that usually pervaded it. Fiddling with the pipe, he leaned over and watched a tentacle of the Giant Squid wave at him near the center of the lake. Giving a small wave to the friendly squid, he turned his thoughts back to a more worrying subject.

Harry.

"I'm so sorry, my boy...," Albus whispered, his eyes already misting against the tumultuous emotions that always surfaced when he thought of the young man.

The child – no, a man – was an incredible person. He dwarfed both his parents in courage and fortitude, despite the childhood _he _had forced upon Harry. Not an overt academic, but he could do things with magic that should be impossible for someone his age. And the inspiration he filled people with around him was something he'd rarely seen in his long life.

But the bright future he had hoped for the child when he first seen him enter the Great Hall, crashed around him with the discovery he made during Harry's fourth year. Harry's soul wasn't the only one inhabiting his body. Voldemort had damned him to a short life, and a tormented one at that.

Sniffling a bit, he place his hat back upon his head and smothered the pipe to keep it from smoldering. Placing it back within the inner pocket of his robe, he stood and continued the slow pace back towards the castle.

He tried everything to rid Harry of parasite dwelling in his scar. Almost two full years of research into the darkest of magics yielded no results. For the only way for it be destroyed was to destroy the carrier it inhabited. Albus almost stumbled over an exposed root of a nearby tree with his mind being of the problem.

The Headmaster swore to protect his students when he was sworn in to office. Not many actually took the oath to heart, but he had. And he had failed on numerous occasions.

Sometimes, in the comfort of his privacy, he wished he had never defeated Grindelwald so the world would look to others to solve their problems. But it was a selfish thought, and as he had the power to make changes, he would do so.

Power, he casually pondered while nearing the entrance to the castle, was both a blessing and a curse. Ever since he took up the mantle to ensure the balance between good and evil, the game had become increasingly difficult.

Albus Dumbledore, the most famous wizard in the past hundred years, just wished for the game to over.

* * *

For the past seven hours, the trio of men had been making their way through Paimpont Forest in a slow and easy pace. Harry noticed that while this was an expedition to find the forest spirit dwelling here, it was more peaceful than he thought it would be. His two companions called him out on it early on and both decided, much to his chagrin, he read to many adventure novels.

Once they passed into the county of Morbihan, the forest became more dense and the fog of the late afternoon was beginning to drift in.

"Let's stay here for the night. Remus, it's your turn to set up the tent." Gabriel said while laughing at the grumbling werewolf.

Harry shook his head in disbelief at how much Remus had changed since he had first seen him at Hogwarts. He seem to be a quiet and studious man, but now he was much more like one of the Marauders he imagined.

Gabriel came up beside him after depositing his pack beside a group of round boulders by a large beech tree. His loose clothing consisting of a pair of well-worn jeans and a gray v-neck t-shirt told him that they were going to be doing some form of training this night.

The younger man looked exceedingly giddy at the prospect.

"Easy, big guy. We're going to be doing some wand work tonight and not Sonancy. Chuck your stuff at Remmy," they heard a low growl coming from the tent, "and let's get to it."

Deciding to cut Remus some slack, he put his satchel down beside the rocks like Gabriel's equipment and decided what he had on would suffice for training.

Gabriel looked him over to see if he needed to change into something else and decided it would do with a nod to Harry. The guardian beckoned him with a wave of his hand and they set up to a grassy stretch of land visible between the trees.

"So what's on the agenda for tonight?" Harry asked once Gabriel found a good flat piece of grassland.

He seemed to notice Harry's drawn wand and asked, "let me see your wand first, we got to remove the trace from it."

Embarrassed that he completely forgot about the trace on his wand, he handed it over with a derisive scowl at his stupidity.

"Don't worry about forgetting that it had the trace, we've been working without wands since I've got here so it was only a slip."

_'Well so much for complaining,' _Harry mused while rubbing the back of his neck.

Gabriel took the holly wand in one hand while his other has held over it. He brought his index finger and thumb in a pinching notion onto the wand and dragged upwards what looked like a wispy strand of yellowish hair. It actually reminded Harry of something, but he couldn't place where he might have seen something like it before.

Done with his task, Gabriel flicked his index finger outwards and the strand of magic flickered in the air and seemingly broke apart. "Here," Gabriel quipped while tossing Harry his wand back. "Now, we'll be working on some elemental magics for now. Tell me a spell that conjures an element."

Ready for the question before it came, Harry replied, "incendio creates an instantaneous flame where you direct your wand."

Gabriel nodded and flicked his fingers, a flame popping up beside him in the air, shaped like a square.

"True, but incendio just creates what _kind _of flame you want at the time. If you want to set some wood on fire, you point you wand, say the incantation, and viola: the wood is on fire. But what if you wanted it do something else?"

Confused slightly, Harry inquired. "What do you mean? I could manipulate the flame _after _summoning it?"

His impromptu teacher snorted and shook his right hand side-to-side. To Harry's amusement, the box shaped flame beside Gabriel moved along with his hand.

"Sort of. You have to first bring forth the flame, but instead of giving it a purpose – like catching a fireplace aflame – you can attach it to your will," here he paused and looked at his flame, where it started shifting to different shapes. "I gave it a link to me, like what we do with Sonancy, where I can give it minor sentience that acts upon what my consciousness desires."

Awed that this type of magic was possibly, Harry could only stare at the sheer _control _that Gabriel had over his own magic.

Harry soon snapped out of it and said, "this sounds really similar to Sonancy, what is the difference?"

"Good question," Gabriel stated. "The difference is this: Sonancy allows you to manipulate and control the elements already surrounding you to achieve results, instead of relying upon a wand to conjure them.

"Sonancy is problematic in that it takes an uncertain amount of time to produce your wanted result. The pay off is that you can get your results flawlessly and the ability to craft whatever you need. A practiced Sonancer can effectively halve the time it takes you currently to do what we did in Sweden, so it takes times."

Harry nodded at the answer to show he understood.

"Okay, now tell me what are the basic elements. We are going to work through all of them to find out which one best suits your style."

Snapped out of his reverie, he responded. "Fire, water, air, and earth."

Gabriel shook his head with a smirk upon his face, "you are forgetting one."

"I am? I thought there was only four naturally occurring elements."

"You'd be correct if we were talking about the natural sciences in a mundane school. They only count those four as being natural, when in fact there is another that has been there since the beginning."

Something about that was tickling the back of Harry's brain. He _knew _he had seen a reference to that someplace in a book he read a long time ago.

"Plasma, Harry, plasma." Gabriel, of course Harry thought, had a mocking smile on his face.

"Sorry, I knew I heard of that before, the book I read back in primary said that they didn't consider it natural. It's a state of matter, I know that, I just didn't consider it a part of the Hellenic Elements."

Gabriel nodded along, "it's true that they don't consider it natural, but that's only because they can't create and harness it outside of those nifty Tesla coils."

"So why do wizards, if I'm assuming correctly, consider it to be natural?"

"They do because they _can _create it and harness it. They just don't like using it because of how...troublesome it can be to the caster."

Cocking his head to the side, Harry mulled that over while Gabriel waved his hand and the fire still floating beside him whiffed out of existence.

"Here is what we are going to do, buddy. I want you to conjure up all for elements before we get to work on the last one, it tends to be the most draining."

A little ashamed at still not knowing certain magicks, Harry responded, "er, Gabriel, I don't mean to sound like a tosser, but I only know the incendio and aguamenti charms. I don't know how the incantations of the other two."

"No, no, that's alright. We didn't have any advanced charms books on hand, so it's fine your unprepared for now. I will fix that later by breezing over to Diagon Alley tomorrow or something."

Harry coughed. "I still need to know the incantations."

Gabriel palmed his face and replied, "my bad. It's terraio for earth and aria for air. No wand movements, we will doing without those."

Cocking his eyebrow at the mention of no wand movements, he just shrugged it off. _'Flitwick would probably have a conniption fit if he heard that,' _Harry humored.

Bringing his wand to bear, he aimed towards the open plains in front of them.

"_Terraio_," Harry intoned, feeling his magic jump up through his arm and down his wand. He didn't have time to ponder of the unfamiliar feeling as seconds after his magic left his wand, a deep rumbling could be heard ahead of them.

With a sudden crunching of dirt and rock, an enormous block of earth formed above the grass, hovering for a split second before collapsing onto the ground beneath it.

Gabriel, with eyes wide, looked back and forth between the massive mound of dirt and slack-jawed Harry.

"When I said conjure up some earth, I didn't mean for you to give me a small planetoid," he joked, but Harry could hear the slight tremor in his voice.

Sputtering, he retort softly, "Gabriel, I didn't mean to do...well do all that!"

Now appearing curious, Gabriel trotted over to stand beside Harry. Apparently, he didn't want to know what would happen with the other three elements while he was slightly in the line of fire.

"Did your magic feel different?" He asked, eyes still roaming over the not-so-little hill Harry created.

Before Harry could reply, the sound of pounding feet on the grass behind them could be heard approaching. Turning around, the both noticed Remus looking frantic with his wand drawn.

"What the hell was that!" Remus exclaimed, looking towards the mound behind Harry and Gabriel.

An expression of dawning apprehension came over Harry's face and was about to explain when Gabriel broke the silence.

"It's Harry's fault," he chortled while pointing to Harry with his index finger.

Harry rolled his eyes and cuffed his guardian on the back of his head and ignored his surprised yelp.

"Sorry, Remus," he started, "Gabriel is teaching me some elemental magicks and I kind of overdid it."

Still rubbing the back of his head, Gabriel snorted and dodged another swipe of Harry's hand.

Remus holstered his wand up his left sleeve and sighed in relief. He asked, "what do you mean you overdid it?"

"You see Mount Everest back there?" Gabriel asked and gestured behind him with his thumb. At Remus' nod, he continued, "well, Harry here did it in one go."

Funnily enough, Remus only rose an eyebrow in Harry's direction.

Harry huffed and nodded before turning around to inspect the hill, looking for a reason why his magic seemed more potent with this casting.

The werewolf chortled and choked out, "only our Harry would be disappointed in having his magic above average."

The two men ignored the grumbling teen and conversed some more.

"I am curious as to how he pulled it off. I have some idea of _why _it happened, though."

"Oh?" Remus asked.

Gabriel nodded and walked over to Harry, who was poking and prodding his creation with his wand.

"Harry, how did you magic feel when you cast the spell?" Gabriel softly asked.

Startled at the sudden close proximity, Harry jumped and clutched at his chest.

"Jesus, Gabriel! What the hell did I say about sneaking up on me?" Harry shouted, glaring at his smirking friend.

"It's not my fault you get lost in the clouds and don't listen to your instinctual awareness, _like you should_. Now, answer the question." Gabriel crossed his arms loosely, waiting for the reply.

Ruffling his slightly long hair, Harry sigh and answered, "it was a rush from my center, down my arm, and into my wand. It actually reminded me a lot of the way Sonancy feels."

A pleased expression bloomed over Gabriel's face for a second, before his smirking visage returned.

"That's what I thought," Gabriel turned to address both Remus and Harry, simultaneously. "It seems that Harry has become accustomed to drawing manually from his manipura. It was so concentrated though his wand, that it resulted in that," he pointed at the rock and dirt hill, "and now he will have to practice to limit what he draws upon."

Looking slightly doubtful, Remus asked, "you mean Harry has more magic than average?"

Scoffing, Gabriel replied. "No, it means that through practicing Sonancy so much, he has, technically, stretched out his magical channel – or manipura – to the point where much more magic can transverse though it."

"I thought wizards and witches have magical cores?" Remus queried, looking slightly bemused.

"Magical cores don't exist. What does exist is the connection between the magic surrounding our world and our bodies. When someone does a diagnostic spell to check our 'reserves' so to speak, they are actually seeing the integrity of that channel." Gabriel was in full lecture mode, Harry humorously surmised.

Remus looked to be thinking over another fact shattering truth, so Gabriel turned to talk to Harry, presumably about how to control the influx of so much magic.

"Alright, Merlin, we need to get you under control before a simple disarming spell rips someones arm off," Gabriel stated, and he waved his hand towards the surrounding field where multiple planks of wood popped up.

With a questioning look from Harry, Gabriel explained. "I want you to focus on filtering only a little bit of magic through your center. Use a beginner cutter to take the top half off of the planks," he paused and added, "_one at a time_."

What followed was probably the most aggravating session of training Harry ever experienced. Some times, he would manage to produce a low-powered cutter that would do what Gabriel asked, and then, through his elation at his success, would call forth a cutter that would slice through four or five planks at once. And continue on until it dug a deep gorge into the earth behind his targets.

Remus even came in to give hypothetical advice, which sometimes even helped. It truly showed Harry that Remus was the brains of his father's little posse, even though he still had a fun side.

After an hour of continuous casting, it seemed to be paying dividends in control of his magic. The incidents of overpowered curses were less frequent and his average powered ones were more so. Finishing off another set of twelve planks, Gabriel called a halt to the procedure.

"Good, good. It looks like you got the gist of what I was aiming for. Let's apply it to other spells now," he waved his hand again towards the ground now covered in sawdust, which promptly disappeared back into the ether.

"Another terraio charm?" Harry asked, twirling his wand between his fingers.

Gabriel simply nodded and gestured a shooing motion with his hands, while he conversed with Remus about something Harry couldn't hear.

Shrugging, Harry turned and raised his wand. With a murmured, "_terraio_," and a minute twitch of his wand, a medium sized boulder materialized ten feet away in the air which then crashed into the ground. Harry turned his focus inward to see if there was the familiar drain through his body and was pleased to find no fatigue this time.

Harry turned with a pleased smirk to see a satisfied smile on Gabriel's and a proud one upon Remus' scruffy face.

"Well done," Gabriel complimented. "Now give me a nice strong wind from the...let's say the east. Remember, the incantation is aria."

Nodding, Harry turned away from the setting sun and imagined a gust of air coming from that direction.

"_Aria_," Harry whispered in a breathy fashion, his wand pointed upwards towards the deep blue sky.

Not a second later, a howling wind descended on them from where Harry was facing that buffeted them strongly enough to make their clothes flap wildly. Harry had a wide grin on his face while his hair and clothes were both being battered by his wind.

A few minutes later, Harry canceled the wind with a horizontal swish of his dark wand and he turned to see if his work was satisfactory with Gabriel.

"Spectacular, Harry!" Remus praised, his eyes alight.

"I agree," Gabriel agreed with a nod. "Now tell me why it's important for you to learn how to conjure and manipulate the elements that surround you."

Already knowing the many possibilities from mastering these spells, he replied, "because each element effects the others. Wind can either feed a flame into a wild blaze, or it could stifle it by removing oxygen from the air. Fire can cause water to evaporate and create steam, or it might even be used to manipulate it to other uses.

"The possibilities are endless! I could use water to quench someones thirst or I could use it imprison someone and use a chilling wind to freeze the water," Harry finished with an excited gleam to his eyes. He had never thought all all the _useful _things one could do with the magic he learned at school. It seemed to him that Hogwarts might teach you spells, but they couldn't teach students imagination.

Gabriel and Remus nodded along, looking strangely right at home being a teacher. Harry chuckled at the mimicked motions the two shared, they did that startling often.

After Harry and company righted their belongings after the wind shifted their stuff around, Gabriel turned to address him once more. It seemed from his face, whatever this lesson would be, was going to be a serious one.

"Alright Harry, before we move onto the last bit of elemental conjuration you don't know, I need you complete agreement that you won't use it unless in desperate straights."

Remus, looking shocked, swiveled his head between the other two. "What element are you talking about, Gabe?" He asked.

Not taking his eyes off Harry, he replied, "plasma."

"What!" Remus shouted with a shocked expression on his scarred face.

Harry just kept his gaze locked with Gabriel's and gave a shallow nod, expressing his understanding of how serious the subject was without words.

"It's too dangerous! There is a reason they don't teach it at Hogwarts, you know!" Remus yelled, only getting more panicked every second.

Gabriel, satisfied with Harry's resolute stature, turned to Remus and clapped a hand on the frightened werewolf's shoulder. "Easy there, Remmy. Harry and I both know the dangers of this particular branch of magic and I trust him not to be a fool while using it," he looked into his amber eyes, "and show Harry your trust as well."

Getting his composure together, Remus sighed and turned his head to look at Harry. The young man just smiled reassuringly and nodded in the same way he did with Gabriel.

Remus sighed again and ran his right hand through his short brown hair and said, "alright, I trust you both to know what you're doing. I'm not suited to elemental magic and I've heard horror stories about people summoning plasma."

"Don't worry, Remus. He's got an ageless Guardian Angel by his side, what's the worst that could happen?" Gabriel arrogantly asked while striking a pose, arms akimbo.

A pair of soft chuckles answered him and he petulantly stated, "fine, be that way. Just for that, I'm shaving you during the full moon, Remus. As for you, Harry, I'm going to stick your tongue to the roof of your mouth so you can't use Sonancy for a week."

Knowing he wouldn't do such a thing, Harry and Remus shared a grin.

"Pair of asses," Gabriel growled. "Whatever, let's get started. What can you tell me about plasma, Harry?"

"It's naturally occurring in the form of lightning, among other electrical discharges in the upper atmosphere. It is also called the fourth state of matter which is similar to the gas state, but it differs in the fact that it is electrical conductive and has a magnetic field."

"I see you have been raiding the physic's section at the library," Gabriel cracked at the embarrassed face of his charge.

Harry just shrugged and said, "what can I say, I like the sciences? It explains so much about everything and even helps my understanding of magic."

"Really?" Remus asked, curious.

Gabriel and Harry chorused, "Yep." They traded smirks and looked back at Remus.

"Creepy," Remus drawled, unable to keep the smile off his face. "I might want to pick up some books on the subject as well, sometime."

Harry piped up before Gabriel could reply, "don't worry, Remus. I bought a bunch of books on the subject and they're in my satchel. I'll get them for you, later."

The werewolf just smiled in thanks and gestured for Gabriel to continue his lesson.

With a roll of his eyes, Gabriel turned back to Harry. "Now with that knowledge of how it is composed structurally, it will help you be able to control the way your conjured plasma behaves," he looked to Remus, "that is why others have so much trouble with plasma. They don't know anything about it but just expect to control a bolt of superheated energy right from the get go? I think not."

Remus nodded, understanding the truth in that statement. Harry understood as well, it's why the spell Fiendfyre was so utterly uncontrollable. It was a mixture of both fire _and _plasma, thus creating the unstable conditions so many were fearful of.

"Moving on, what I want you conjure is a bolt of lighting, _not _from your wand, to strike at minimum fifty yards away. Lightning from a wand is hazardous on it's own, especially for a first timer."

Gabriel turned and tilted his head to side a bit then raised his fist slightly. With a short, high-pitched whistle and a flick of his index finger a stone pillar shot from the ground a good distance away. He turned and winked at Harry's excited face.

"Yeah, Sonancy is bloody awesome," a gobsmacked Remus stated.

The other two tittered at the awestruck werewolf until Remus scowled at them.

Gabriel sobered up and turned back to Harry. "The incantation for regular lightning is fulguris. But since I want you to _strike _something with it, you need to add a Latin verb to the end of it. What would be a good _Latin_ verb to use, Harry?"

Wishing he bought that Latin translation book he saw the other day, he mulled it over. "Er, accudo?" Harry answered with a question.

Giving him a queer look, as if he knew Harry was uncertain about it, Gabriel admonished, "close, but not quite. Accudo is used more as a dash. If you used it, it would make a continuous line of lightning from sky to ground." Shaking his head, he continued once more, "we need to get you a book for Latin tomorrow as well. Try again."

Growling in frustration, Harry closed his eyes and scoured his impressive memory for any hints of what Latin word he could use to focus his intent into the spell.

Eyes snapping open, he said, "percutio!"

Smiling once again, Gabriel nodded.

"There you go, that's the word I was looking for. We are definitely expanding your Latin vocabulary in your free time this summer," Gabriel said with a wry smirk. "Well, go ahead and light up that pillar I raised."

With a quick nod, Harry turned to face the field he used earlier to cut down numerous planks of wood. The stone pillar stood tall at roughly, Harry figured, twenty feet with a diameter of three feet. He thanked Gabriel again privately for his new and improved eyesight.

Raising his wand to aim at where he wanted his lightning to strike, he could feel his pulse quicken at the thought of conjuring one of natures' most fiercest forces. His grip tightened around the holly wand and he schooled his features to be relaxed.

"_Fulguris percutio_," he deeply growled, holding back the tidal wave of magic wanting to escape and destroy, but only letting out a little bit.

_'This is going to be interesting,' _Harry thought right after he felt the magic leave his wand.

The rumble up above in the cloudy dusk sky was their only warning before a pulsating beam of crackling energy smashed into Gabriel's pillar. A sound, unlike anything Harry had ever heard before, filled the air in a high-pitched whine. It was almost as if the blinding bolt of plasma was singing where it struck the target.

And then it was gone, leaving white splotches in their vision, ringing ears, hair standing on end, and the smell of ozone surrounding them.

Suddenly, Gabriel yelled, "Cover your ears!"

Dropping his wand in his haste, Harry clapped his hands to his ears right before an earth shattering boom echoed across the French country side.

Looking around to the other two to make sure they were okay, the black haired teen let out a sigh of relief. He stood up straight from where he was crouched slightly and walked over to check on them.

Remus was shaking his head slightly with his nose scrunched up showing his discomfort. Gabriel, on the other hand, looked like nothing happened. Except he was staring over Harry's shoulder with a look Harry couldn't place.

The werewolf righted his center of gravity and followed Gabriel's gaze until he became slack-jawed in apparent shock at what he was seeing behind his best-friend's son.

Closing his eyes, Harry let out a frustrated sigh at his life, and turned around to devastation.

Where once there was a green field, there was now a shaky circle of glassy dirt that spider-webbed out from where there used to be a pillar of solid stone. Now all there was was a little pile of molten rock, fused together by the tremendous heat of the lightning. Cracks were formed between the blackened field that showed pieces of glossy fulgurite crisscrossing between the gouges.

_'I don't know if this is a good or a bad thing,' _Harry thought with a grim smile.

"Well, shit." He stated, looking over his handiwork with the same grim smile.

Harry sighed.


	10. Chapter 10: Dull Days of Anomalies

**A/N: **Welcome back to another update readers. Short A/N today in which I am still looking for artists for who would like to do a job for me. Also, I've gotten reviews and messages that states this is a Gary Stu fic. I'm here to tell you that this isn't the case with HW and you'll just have to patient to see how it goes. That's it, so now on with the chapter!

_Standard disclaimers apply _

**Dull Days of Anomalies**

Three days.

Three whole days since Harry had left, and Hermione was missing his presence unlike any other moment since she had met him on the train in their first year.

Sitting on her favorite lounge chair on the patio behind her house, she watched the warm breeze tickle the low, sweeping branches of the willow tree. Wearing some comfortable loose jeans and a dark crimson blouse, Hermione thought about the new development of having a boyfriend. And not just any boyfriend, but one that was her best friend beforehand.

Lazily holding open a leisure novel in one hand while her other was tracing the curvature of her bottom lip, a shy smile played across her lips.

If she were honest with her self, she'd admit it was silly being this enamored so quickly, but she also knew that Harry was always the one Hermione wanted. Even with all of his faults, she embraced him into her heart readily.

Shaking her head, she muttered, "I'm being a love-sick fool."

"Is there something wrong with that?" Came her mother's voice from behind her, causing her to squeak and give a startled jump.

"Mum!" She exclaimed, holding her free hand over her heaving chest.

Amelia laughed softly, the skin around her eyes crinkling in amusement.

"Dear, I've never known you to ignore your surroundings so thoroughly. Is this about Harry?"

Feeling heat rise up her neck to her face, Hermione ducked her head so her bangs covered up much of her face. Her chestnut curls spread apart with her mother's hands so they could embrace both sides of her face and lift it back up to meet Amelia's kindly gaze.

"There is nothing to be embarrassed about, Hermione. My family has always been blessed in finding our true loves quickly, and Harry is quite the young man." She smiled gently and caressed Hermione's cheek with her left hand.

Closing the book she was hardly reading, Hermione sighed and covered her mothers hands with her own and leaned into the touch. This was one of the reasons why she loved her parent's dearly, they both had their own ways of comforting her completely. Especially her mother, with her soft eyes and compassionate nature.

"I don't know what to do, mother," Hermione started to say and paused. "It's unlike anything I've ever felt before, and I'm scared that I'll do something and ruin our friendship."

Amelia nodded and sat down beside her daughter, her hands still holding her daughters.

"That is the strange thing about human emotions, we rarely know how to comprehend them. How could we know what to do _with _them?" She rhetorically asked.

Her mother continued talking, "I found Cleo at a young age by pure chance when I caught a flat tire near Cannes when I traveled there after college. After that, it was like a dream, one moment he is helping me refit a tire, and the next we are strolling hand in hand through the gardens of Bordeaux."

Amelia turned her head from where she was watching the swaying of the willow tree and smiled brightly at her enraptured daughter's face. "You see, when I was your age, I was naïve to certain subjects, love especially. I never thought I would find such a thing, but I did and I will die happy knowing I found a lasting love."

Hermione understood the point her mother was making and squeezed her hand, matching her mother's perfect smile with one of her own. Perks of being a dentist's daughter, she supposed.

Amelia stood up, finally releasing Hermione's hands and asked, "could you go into town and get some items for dinner? I want to make an old recipe I found today in a box."

Shaking her head in amusement, Hermione stood also and walked towards the patio door.

"Why is it everyone in the family can cook, but me?" She whined good-naturedly while opening the door with her free hand. She mock-glared at her mothers cheery face when she heard her tittering.

"You can blame your father, he only knows how to cook three dishes and that's just because his mother drilled it into him since he was ten," Amelia said, her body still quivering from suppressed laughter.

Hermione huffed and then followed it up with a laugh of her own. She made her way past the kitchen entrance to grab her beige coat and waited for the list from her mother. Within moments, she heard Amelia's graceful trot coming towards her and she saw her with a folded leaf of paper in her hand.

"Here you go, there should be enough money within the paper as well," she said and straightened Hermione's coat motherly. "Now, if you have any problems, just ask to use the telly from Mrs. Roberts in town. Be back soon so we can gossip." She gave a wry wink and chuckled at Hermione's shocked face.

"Mum! We don't gossip!" She retorted.

Her mother waved a hand carelessly, continuing to chuckle knowing Hermione understood she was just playing. Amelia gave a quick peck on her face and turned to return back to the kitchen to prepare.

"Love you too mother!" Hermione shouted, a smile donning her face as she made her way to the front door.

"I know, daughter!" She heard her mother's clearly amused voice come from the kitchen before the door closed behind her. Hermione smiled and shook her hair out from underneath the coat's collar to gather it up and put it in a loose bun.

Walking down the sidewalk of Derwent Close, she fiddled with the sheaf of paper in her pocket while she hummed a little tune that was stuck in her head. Knowing the route by heart, she wasn't paying much attention to her surroundings, and almost bumped into a stranger coming from the opposite direction.

"Sorry, sir!" Hermione quickly said, sidestepping the tall gentleman who eyed her with a steady gaze. Getting a better look at him, she realized just how much taller he was compared to her and her eye's widened in shock.

"It's all right, little miss. Just be careful where you step." The man spoke with a monotone voice. Curiously, it reminded her of the moment when Harry spoke on his bike, almost without emotion. She gave a quick nod to the daunting figure and hurried away, feeling his eyes on the back of her head.

_'Strange man...,'_ she thought, her hand working on the paper even more rigorously. The paper was going to be crumpled almost unreadable by the time she got there, if she kept it up.

Soon Hermione was passing her old primary school to cross the bridge that led to Huntingdon proper when she heard several muffled booms from behind her. Turning curiously, she peered off back towards her house to see if anything was amiss, but she figured that it was just a car backfiring somewhere nearby.

With a one armed shrug, she continued on her way to the grocers in town. Walking this path she had for so long, brought her back to the night her and Harry had made the same trip. That night was one of her favorite moments, and she knew it was just the beginning.

But that still didn't stop her from missing Harry, much to her consternation.

Forty minutes later found her in the same exact spot across the bridge holding a brown bag full of seemingly random items. Luckily, her mother had indeed gave her enough money for the purchases.

Pondering what homework assignment she would start on next, and coincidentally wondering if Harry had even _started _his work yet, she made her way past the school and onto the neighborhood sidewalks.

Looking forwards down the road, she stopped at seeing something peculiar in the near distance.

Smoke.

Black, billowing smoke was rising into the violet sky from the direction of her...home.

With a gasp, she dropped the bag in her arms and broke out into a full out sprint back to her house, ignoring the sound of breaking glass behind her.

Terrible ideas wormed their way into her mind, rooting her into a sense of dismay as the dark smog rising above her. Closer and closer she came to her street, praying to a god she didn't really believe in that her family was okay. That they were still alive.

Rounding onto her street, she stopped suddenly as if struck.

There was her house and her father's recently arrived car on the corner, engulfed in bright, radiant flames that seemed to ignore the water from the local fire service. The fires were raging against all the windows of the house, and that's when it hit her.

Her mother and father were gone.

Trembling, she put foot in front of foot until she could feel the naked heat beating across her face, drying the tears before they could even fall. She craned her neck, hoping that she was wrong about her parents being gone, but the more she searched for them, the more she came to realize that they weren't in the crowd surrounding her house.

Hermione's feet seemed to give out from under her, and she fell to her knees on the grass of her neighbors lawn, eyes riveted to the house she loved since she could think. Looking up into the window of her room, she could see the flames licking at the curtains and a sob finally broke through.

She didn't care that the people around her were looking at her with piteous gazes, she didn't care that someone was laughing beyond the crowd.

Hermione whipped her head up, looking for the out of place laughter. The laughter was a cackle, and she knew that laugh.

With tears still falling, she looked around her, looking for a face that wasn't studiously trying to avoid her own. Then she saw her.

Bellatrix Lestrange in all of her dark glory was cackling like a hyena from across the street, garbed in the dark feminine robes that revealed a corset of the darkest black. Her long, crooked wand at her side while her other was fiddling with a random string of her exposed corset. Eyes of the most insanely beautiful violet taunting her from a shallow face that could be once called striking.

She found her parents murderer laughing at her in front of the house she most likely set herself. And for the first time, beneath all the regret, all of pain of her loss was put aside for something she never felt before.

Rage. A wrath she would liken to the God that old pastors would preach about sprang up inside her, and she understood how Harry felt back in May at the Ministry. She wanted to not just hurt this lunatic, she wanted to end her. Hermione wanted to watch the insanity leave her eyes while she did it.

Standing up, she reached for her wand that was in her belt on the small of her back. Before she could even get a good grip on the handle, a stranger was behind the still laughing madwoman. It was the man she had bumped into from before, with that same emotionless look upon his face.

Not whipping the tears from her face so she wouldn't miss something, the man looked over the top of Bellatrix's head and for the first time a emotion crossed his face. It wasn't pity, she would have recognized that, it was something different.

Sorrow. Or regret, it might have even been a mix of the two.

It was odd, coming from a stranger she barely said three words to, not over an hour ago.

His black hair, short and combed over was unmoving against the now harsh winds of the coming night. Blue eyes, that gleamed with fierce intelligence and constant restraint, peering at her. A full three heads taller than the laughing Bellatrix Lestrange with a bodily grace that screamed predator.

He broke eye contact first to glare at the back of the head of the woman in front of him, who was still laughing. Bringing up strong arms, with hands to the sides of Bellatrix's head, Hermione watched with rapt concentration. Hermione was stuck watching, not wanting to turn away from the scene in front of her.

The mans hands suddenly grasped each side of Bellatrix's head, who now stopped laughing. Panic now showing through the blood-lust and insanity all to late as the man acted quicker that she could react.

His face now back into a clear slate, he pushed he hands together with Bellatrix's head still between them.

Hermione watched with disgusted fascination as Bellatrix's oval face become elongated into a more distorted oval as the force the man produced, destroyed her skull with seeming relative ease. Hermione watched as the lifeless corpse of her parent's killer slacken and drop to the ground at the feet of the man who just ended her.

The man spared one more glance to her that shared sorrow and he crouched low to touch the still warm body of Bellatrix and he disappeared from view with a shimmer.

Falling onto her knee's again harshly, the sound around her picked up in volume that she didn't hear before she caught sight of the witch hysterically laughing across the street. With blank eyes still leaking tears, her eyes stared at the ground while someone came up behind her and wrapped a blanket over her shoulders.

Hermione stayed there past when the feeling in her legs numbed, and she stayed there despite all the people trying to move her.

_'I'm alone...,'_ was the thought that crossed her mind before the exhaustion and emotions caught up with her, and with only spots in her vision warning her, she feinted and crumpled backwards.

* * *

Morning broke with gray skies that threatened to rain sooner rather than later. The campsite was silent with only the sounds of the surrounding forest and light rumbling off in the distance of thunder. A black-haired man sat in an overstuffed chair in front of a dying fire with his eyes closed, but clearly awake with the ways his fingers twitched sporadically.

After the incident with the summoning of the lightning, Harry and Remus were left alone with their shell-shocked faces when Gabriel abruptly retreated to his room in the tent.

Waiting for more than two hours for his reappearance, Remus decided to call it a night to the already long day and both men returned to the now erect tent. Remus did anyways, Harry chose to stay outside and ponder the curiosity that was his magic.

His mind and body were alert and taut with an abundance of magically charged adrenalin so he doubted he would be getting to sleep soon.

Harry was right.

The adrenalin didn't leave him till early morning and by then, it was to late, or rather early, to fall asleep.

So he stayed awake and furiously went over everything that dealt with his magic. It was subtle, but he new his magical fortitude was stronger than before. Of course, he knew he was strong magically before the changes Gabriel brought upon him, but the new peak of magic was both wondrous and terrifying.

Ever since the itching and aches began, Harry knew he was changing. The shifting was there, almost too miniscule to notice, but his new senses didn't miss much of anything nowadays.

And the changes scared him.

During moments of complete silence since the weird dream that still eluded him, he could hear the soft rustling of wings in the winds. He could also feel a presence within him that brought a calm to his inner turmoils, and also terrible power. That's what scared him the most; the power.

The tremendous power rolling around inside him wasn't magic that Harry knew of. The magic he had inside him was like a flowing river, rippling and unchanging. This new power, though, was a whole other animal. It felt primal and unyielding, promising Harry it could create such devastation to the world or bring beauty with it's magnificence.

Harry just hoped Gabriel would reemerge soon from his self-exile to his room so they could discuss how he was changing. When Gabriel first brought up the change that would happen with the ritual, he didn't expect any of this. And from his guardians' recent actions, neither had he.

His fingers drumming on the arms of the chair, Harry opened his eyes to peer off into the northern sky where the clouds were congregating. Harry was enjoying their little adventure, but he hoped it rained today and postponed it for awhile. They needed to figure out what was coming and soon, or all manners of trouble would find them unawares.

A snap of wood behind him alerted Harry to the presence of...Gabriel, his senses told him. Craning his neck up and to the left, he saw the bemused visage of the blonde man observing him.

"I know I'm pretty, but it's rude to stare," Harry joked, hoping to dissipate the palpable tension in the air.

That drew a small smile from Gabriel as he came around Harry's chair to sit in the one to the left of the dying blue fire.

"Sorry about taking off last night, I had to bring this up with a colleague and try to figure it out. Haedorin thinks the aura in your arm is linked to your affinity to plasma and other details we've seen," he snorted quickly. "That damn elf is basically salivating at the prospect of a new puzzle for him to solve."

Harry shook his head with an amused look on his face, the blew his bangs out of his eyes and looked over at Gabriel who was staring intently at the fire.

"You didn't expect all this trouble when you got here, did you?" Harry asked, not unkindly.

With a soft sigh, Gabriel replied, "Truthfully? No. I mean, I knew you were different, that's why I did the ritual. But with everything else going on in this world, I can't help but think there is something bigger happening behind the scenes. It's...confusing."

"Confusing." The black-haired man stated rather that asked.

Nodding, Gabriel continued. "Yeah, confusing. Usually, realities play along a certain path in which other do as well. That's why I come back right after your fifth year, because most of the previous five years stay the same and the troubles begins.

"But in this reality, everything is different. No other Harry conjures a corporeal Patronus in their third year. No other Harry suffers as much trouble as you have in the past. Plus, you are inordinately lucky, it's like you had an angel on your shoul-." Suddenly he cut off and sat up rigidly straight. A light burned in his now blue eyes that relayed that he uncovered a truth.

Harry caught on to what he was thinking and scoffed. "No way, you all would have noticed!" He cried in disbelief.

Still looking excited at the promise of solving a piece of the mystery surrounding Harry, Gabriel turned to look at Harry more acutely.

"I'll be back in second, I got to make some inquiries. I want you to make this sigil," he made an odd loopy shape on the ground with his finger, "with spell fire on a rock and keep it on your person for the rest of the day."

With that said, he twisted the ring on his finger once more and faded away with nary a sound. Harry sighed at the complexities that he had to endure almost daily.

"Why can't I just have a normal day once in a while," he murmured while kicking around smooth rocks that were near the small pond. He leaned over and picked up a round, smooth stone that was roughly the size of his palm.

Making his way back to the chair Gabriel previously occupied, he sat down and studied the etched sigil in the dirt and ash in front of the camp fire. It wasn't enormously complex in design but it had a weird style that went against the commonplace flow when it came to drawing.

Pulling his wand for the waist holster they bought the day before the trip, he gave it a sharp flick which ignited a blue-white flame at the end of the wand. It was an interesting spell that Gabriel practically demanded he learn recently. Glancing once more at the glyph on the ground to make sure his memory wasn't incorrect, he brought the flame to the circular, smooth rock and began to etch carefully.

Five minutes later, Harry tapped his wand with his index finger of the hand that was holding it to extinguish the torch. Blowing the powder off the stone with a strong breath, he admired his handiwork.

It was perfect.

"Thank god for better hand-eye coordination," he said with a chuckle.

With the done, he holstered his wand and cupped his hands around the stone like Gabriel instructed when it came to powering runes. _'If I knew runes were this awesome, I would have taken Ancient Runes __with 'Mione,'_ Harry thought while channeling the river like flow of his magic through his hands into the rock.

The flow of magic was compressed and channeled from his manipura in his torso, down his arms, through his fingers and finally into the newly created rune. With so much magic traversing around his fingers, it was creating miniature sparks and bolts of electricity. It made sense, to Harry that is, that it was because his affinity was plasma in nature.

With an instinctual feeling that he channeled enough energy into the rock, he cut the flow and opened up his hands to see if the rune was sufficiently powered. What greeted him literally took his breath away.

"Bloody hell..." Harry breathed out.

The rune, which was eloquently beautiful before, now looked phenomenally ethereal with how the rune now emitted a blue light shining up out of the lines of the rune.

"That's definitely powered," he stated while turning the rock over and looking or any faults.

Impatient for Gabriel to get back so he could find out what the sigil did, Harry began pacing out in front of the tent until he heard the tired stumbling of Remus from within.

"Remus," Harry shouted and laughed when he heard a bang and a muffled curse. "Get your lazy ass out here, we got some developments."

The shambling werewolf made his way outside quicker that his earlier movements with a intrigued look upon his face.

"What's the news?" Remus asked.

"Gabriel thinks I've had an angel following me around. A quite literal case of having an angel on my shoulder."

That drew an amused look to the werewolf's face and another question.

"Where is that guy anyways?"

Harry flopped down on the over stuffed chair and said, "I'm guessing back to HQ to do some research. He should be back shortly, he can be out of time, so to speak so he can be gone for a year and here it would only be a second. Interesting trick, that."

"Is your life always this interesting?"

The man in question just laughed. "You have no idea. I'd kill for a normal day."

"Being normal isn't fun though!" A male voice spoke up from over by the boulder shadowing the pond.

Harry jumped up with speed belaying his increased reflexes and whipped up both his open-palmed left hand and wand in his right. Remus just crouched into a dueling stance with his wand pointed forward.

They both let out a frustrated sigh when they saw Gabriel sitting there in his trademark suit and smirk on his face.

"What's with you and the dramatics," Harry spat out incredulously.

Gabriel pushed himself off the rock and walked over to his traveling companions with the smirk still on his face. "It's adds a little flavor to life," he cracked while sitting down on one of the chairs surrounding the now dead fire.

"So, any answers about why my life is so weird?" Harry asked and Remus nodded, curious as well.

Gabriel rubbed his right hand over his jaw tiredly and replied, "kinda-sorta. The trackers have detected an angelic presence near you periodically. What's even more odd is the fact they found another presence."

When it didn't seem he wasn't going to continue, Remus spoke up.

"Well don't keep us waiting, you dramatic berk. What was it?"

Looking both in the eyes with his own blue ones, Gabriel answered, "demonic."

Silence spread between them, only the early chirping of the birds could be heard.

"Demonic?" Harry questioned, not knowing to be either afraid or intrigued.

"Yeah," Gabriel started and sighed. "As I've told you before, demons aren't always bad. But when they are bad, they are _really _bad. The trackers and records department is trying to identify the two who have been tailing you since what looks like your birth."

Remus looked appalled at the thought of a demon haunting his best friend's son while Harry merely looked deep in thought.

"Could this have anything to do with the pain in my body? Or the changes outside of what the ritual did?" Harry asked, his eyes flicking from side to side while pouring over memories, looking for any clues.

"More than likely," Gabriel stated.

Remus looked at Harry suddenly, "What about the angel you met the other day when you visited Ms. Granger?"

Harry perked up and was about to ask Gabriel but the guardian beat him to it.

"We already checked on Kateris. When we checked the signature against hers it came up negative. Kateris was _most _displeased when we questioned her about it," he looked over at Harry with an amused look in his eyes. "And I believe you were right about her having a thing for you, she was _actually _concerned about your well-being."

Harry shot Remus a dangerous look when he noticed the werewolf was about to start laughing, but he couldn't stop Gabriel from tittering like a teenage girl.

"Isn't that odd for an angel to like a human? I admit, I don't know much about angels, thanks to a certain _someone _I've met recently, but still. It just seems odd," Harry said with a queer look on his face.

Gabriel spoke over Remus' finally released chuckles, "it actually isn't. Most retired angels and guardians take up relationships with mortals after they leave my realm. I mean, what do you think happened to Arthur Pendragon?"

Remus looked shocked at first then asked excitedly, "Arthur Pendragon? You mean _the _King Arthur dated an angel?"

"The one and the same. And I wouldn't call it _dating_, it was more of a casual lovers kind of relationship. When his time came, she took him back to our realm to be with each other, which the writers called Avalon."

"Amazing," Remus burst out.

"Their rows are even more so," Gabriel exclaimed with a humored smile. "Those two fight more than Merlin and Morgana."

Now it was Harry's turn to ask, "You've met King Arthur?"

"Sort of, you meet all kinds of people in the realm of spirits. Angels just frequent that realm more often than not to meet new people and police for troubles."

Harry just huffed, tired from all the quarter truths and unfulfilled questions to ask any more questions he knew wouldn't be answered.

"Don't be so glum, Harry. I'd answer your questions if I could." Gabriel insisted with genuine remorse.

"I know, Gabe," Harry sighed, "it's just that when I think I've got some answers for something, more just questions just pop up to bug me relentlessly."

Gabriel nodded along with Remus and he added, "that's the trouble with having such a daunting intelligence, it never rests and is _always _curious."

"Thanks for that."

The only reply he got was a smile from Gabriel and a chuckle from Remus.

Suddenly, a slightly off-topic question formed in Harry's mind.

"Gabe, do angels have wings?"

Gabriel looked incredulously at Harry while Remus was now fully laughing, bent over the side of the arm of his chair.

"Where the hell did that come from?" Gabriel exclaimed, humor now flooding his light-blue eyes.

"Well if an angel has got the hots for me, I might as well know." Harry shrugged, thinking that stating the question so wouldn't hurt anything that he had with Hermione. _'Hell, she'd probably be curious as well, but she might not word the question the same,'_ he thought with amusement.

Gabriel rolled his eyes then answered his question, "They do have wings of a sort, but it's not the wings like you are thinking of. They are made of celestial energy that signifies their age and power. It's one of their most defining traits as a species." He paused and quickly added, "and no, they don't have halo's."

Harry just snorted at the quick quip. The question about the wings came from the dreams he had recently and he hoped that the answer would put light to some questions. Now, it was back to square one with the question of the strange rustling of wings that haunted his moments of silence.

"Well, this anatomy lesson is fascinating, but what are we going to do today?" Remus queried, looking towards the dark, looming clouds making their ways southward.

Gabriel followed Remus' gaze and sighed in resignation. "I _really _wanted to find Bugul Noz today," he whined while throwing his hands up in the air.

Harry laughed at the childish nature of his guardian and leaned back into his chair, itching his covered right forearm absentmindedly.

"What's so important about meeting this Bugul Noz, anyways?" Harry asked.

"I just like mee-," Gabriel started to say before he was interrupted by the young wizarding hero.

"And don't give me that spiel about meeting new, expiring creatures. I know it's crap."

Gabriel sighed and leaned back into his comfortable chair as well. Remus just looked between the two, not comprehending the reason for the question.

"It's because he is a guardian of an object that belonged to Merlin when he was buried in this forest. I hope to find it and hand it off to you so you can use it."

Remus looked like an excited child on a sugar rush once more, "Merlin was _actually _buried here? I thought it was just a P.R. thing to bring in the tourists."

The Guardian Angel just nodded demurely with his eyes still closed.

Harry, though, wasn't finished with his questioning.

"What is so special about this object?"

It was apparent to Harry that Gabriel was deep in thought so he didn't urge him further.

"Do either of you know the legend about the dagger, Carnwennan?" Gabriel finally spoke with a question. His eyes were open as well, but they were once again surveying the darkening clouds.

Harry shook his head, but was surprised when Remus nodded slowly.

"White Hilt, the dagger that shrouds the user in shadows. Slayed the infamous Dark Lady Orddu, but that's all that I know of it." Remus finished with a shrug.

"You know more than most, I'll give you that," Gabriel started with dry humor lacing his voice. "The reason I want it for Harry is because it was fashioned in the Shadow Realm and it has the ability to call on certain aspects of that realm."

Now Harry was peaked, so he asked, "why would this dagger, Carnwennan I believe you called it, be beneficial to me? I would think using it would be trouble, seeing as the realm it came from has an ominous sounding name."

Gabriel sighed, this time sounding disappointed for some reason. Harry just gave him a questioning look.

"When are you going to get over this whole light and dark thing? I thought we covered this back with the homunculus I made of you." He dryly stated while giving Harry a pointed look.

Managing a sheepish look, Harry shrugged and replied, "sorry, old habits die hard."

Gabriel chuckled and waved him off, understanding.

"Anyways," the guardian continued. "The dagger has properties of the shadow realm which _will _come in handy if you come face to face with Tommy-boy again."

Remus and Harry sat there waiting for details, but like usual, they didn't come.

"You aren't going to tell me till we have it, are you?" Harry growled out with a sour look on his face.

Gabriel just put that thrice-damned smirk on his face and nodded.

"I hate you."

Remus added his two-pence as well, "I hate you as well."

Mock-affronted, Gabriel stared at Remus. "Why do you hate me? I thought we had something special, you and I!"

Rolling his eyes heavenward, Remus walked back to the tent to put something together for breakfast. It was his turn after all.

They remaining two sat in companionable silence, just observing the roiling storm clouds making their way to the forest. Once more, Harry could hear the soft shuffling of feathered wings which brought up a topic he's been meaning to bring up with Gabriel.

"Gabriel," his guardian looked over at him with inquiring look, "I've been mean to tell you, but for awhile now, since the itching started I have been hearing this weird sound and having even weirder dreams."

Serious suddenly, Gabriel asked, "and why haven't you brought it up before?"

"Don't get me wrong, I've been meaning to, but something always comes up. Sorry about that."

"No worries, tell me about the dreams and what you hear."

Recollecting everything he could about the dreams, which even with his new eidetic memory, was spotty at best, Harry told him everything he could. From the strange rustling sound, to the half-remembered conversation in his dream, to the calling of a horn unlike he's ever heard before.

When he was finished, Harry fiddled with the sleeves of the button-up flannel he threw on last night. He watched his friends face as it scrunched up in concentration with his eyes unfocused, suddenly nervous about what it could all mean for his future. The blaring of that horn _drew _him unlike anything else he's felt before. It reminded him of the Sirens of old that drew them to their deaths. He didn't know if that was foreshadowing or just plain paranoia.

With the way his life usually ended up, he was leaning towards the morbid.

"I have no clue about the wing thing, but the voice and horn sound vaguely familiar. It's on the tip of my tongue." Gabriel said while rubbing his smooth chin in thought.

"Give it awhile to work on it, in the mean time, what was that sigil you made me make?" asked Harry.

Slapping his face in consternation at himself, Gabriel answered, "it's an hostile angel ward. It'll keep any angelic being that bears you ill-will away, although it won't keep out a sufficiently strong one. Kateris for example would tear through it without breaking a sweat," he paused till a smile overtook his handsome features, "though I doubt she'd bear you any ill-will." Gabriel winked as he finished his jibe.

Harry groaned and palmed his face with his hands.

"Oi! Come and get it!" Remus' voice came from the tent.

Looking at each other quickly, they both bolted from their chairs and into the small dining room to demolish their breakfast. It was a well-known fact that Remus' cooking skills dwarfed both Harry's ill-begotten skills in the kitchen and Gabriel's seemingly unending experience.

A few hours later, the trio of men were all sitting outside around the once again lit blue bell flames, absorbing the heat to stave off the chill from the now pouring rain. Gabriel decided to postpone the trip after all and they were all relaxing in their own way.

Remus was stretched out on a conjured sofa reading a book on something Harry could see. Gabriel was puffing away on an intricately detailed wooden pipe with his eyes closed as he was wont to do. Harry though, was having issues of getting comfortable like usual, but was keeping himself occupied by reading a intermediate level book on runecrafting.

Harry found the subject fascinating and constantly – and mentally – berated himself for opting out of the class to appease his other best friend, Ron.

Pausing in his reading, the thought of Ron brought on conflicting emotions. For one, Harry knew Ron had fancied his now-girlfriend, but now that they were dating, he couldn't help but feel worried by what the reaction of best mate would be. Another thing was a concern about what the brains had done to Ron that night they practically destroyed the Department of Mysteries.

After talking with Ron afterwords and the few letters they exchanged, he could tell his friend was a little...off. He seemed more blunt, more childlike in his behavior. Of course, Ron was always a little immature but he also had moments of astounding foresight and fortitude.

Harry just hoped their friendship survived with the breakout of Hermione and his new relationship.

Returning to his reading of the development of the ancient Behistun language that formed powerful Persian glyphs and runes for elemental protection. He thought that the wandwork elemental manipulation would be more handy, but runes were longer lasting and in some cases, everlasting if you poured enough energy into your creation.

By the time he looked up again, it appeared the sky had started to darken a bit, telling him without a watch that the day was coming to a close. Glancing over at Remus, he now noticed his slight snoring from under the open book that was covering his face. Chuckling, he was about to plan an subtle prank with Gabriel when said guardian jumped up with a stricken look adorning his face.

"No..." Gabriel hissed, a pained look crossing his face before he whisked away with a stiff wind.

Frightened at the possibility that his powerful guardian was suddenly scared about something, he made his was over to the dozing werewolf and shook him awake.

"Huh? What's going on," Remus groggily asked and coughed to clear his throat.

"I don't know, Gabriel suddenly jumped up and looked panicked about something. Whatever it is, it can't be good." That got Remus' attention, and with that attention came a world-weary look that graced his face too many time in Harry's opinion.

Waiting for their friend was always a daunting task because if something could bother him, it went doubly so for the other two.

An eternity seemed to pass, Harry pacing and Remus drumming his fingers on the arms of his chair, before Gabriel returned.

When he returned, it was with company. Company Harry didn't expect to see. Or in such a condition.

"Hermione?" Harry gasped out and ran over faster than even Remus could follow to check up on truest friend and girlfriend.

She seemed to unconscious while laying in Gabriel's arms, and Harry could smell the faint hint of smoke. Then he could see the red, blotchy eyes of recent tears and furrowed brow of inner turmoil.

"What happened?" he demanded of Gabriel without moving his eyes from Hermione's soot covered face.

Gabriel didn't reply so Harry looked up and he drew back shocked at what he saw. His unfaltering, happy-go-lucky companion was crying. And with the tears falling down his cheeks, his lips were drawn back in a rage fueled scowl.

"Gabriel...what's wrong?" Harry asked again, this time more carefully. Now he went from worried about his sudden departure and return with his unconscious girlfriend, to outright terrified at both the situation and the side of Gabriel he'd never seen before.

"It's all gone. Death Eaters destroyed her home, along with her family. Even," he had to break for a catch in his throat, "even the animals."

Both Remus and Harry had horrified looks on their faces at the news, but Harry felt something else as well. Something that went along with Gabriel's wrathful countenance easily.

"Those...those bastards!" Harry growled, wanting more than anything to return to England and rain down destruction upon the corrupted magical world. A look from a calming Gabriel quelled that desire though.

"Their time will come, I promise you that. But now, Hermione needs you. Do not make the mistake your godfather did out of despair. Just be grateful that she was relatively unharmed."

Harry's rage settled, thought it still burned away at his insides, feeding him horrible tortures he will bring Voldemort's followers. Sighing to calm himself further, he motioned for Gabriel to hand Hermione off to him. He did so without hesitation, realizing that they both needed each other at that moment.

It was the right choice, because at the moment her small frame was engulfed in Harry's arms she clung to his checkered flannel as a lifeline and curled up slightly. A soft whimpering, keening sound escaping her pale, drawn lips.

"Don't worry, my love, I've got you. I'll never leave you."

Even as Harry said it, he prayed to a god he didn't know that he wouldn't turn out to be a liar.

* * *

Headmaster Dumbledore was heartbroken once again.

Standing beside him in black robes was his deputy, Minerva McGonagall, as they stood a ways away from the now dead fires of Hermione Granger's house. An uncharacteristic emotional face was on Minerva's face as she surveyed the embers from afar.

"Did she..." she couldn't finish the sentence, it was still too fresh.

Dumbledore didn't answer immediately, having to beat back to sob for the loss of one of his favorite students. When he did, his voice was thick and heavy with emotion.

"I'm afraid I don't know. There were two adult bodies, and what looked like those of a cat and an owl. If she was taken by who did this, and I pray I am wrong, the horrors are only just beginning."

It was Minerva's turn to be silent to gather her bearings, the imagery was hard to suppress, even with all of her Occlumency training.

"What should we do? Mr. Potter will be undoubtedly devastated, especially after losing Sirius so soon." Minerva shuddered at the thought of what Harry would do once he found out. A mage of his caliber will be uncontrollable, and worse yet, it was exactly what Voldemort was aiming for with this attack.

Albus stared at the few people still surrounding the husk of a house and wearily sighed. "You are astute in your prediction of young Harry's reaction. I want nothing more to keep him sheltered of this, but I know it would a crime to do so. He would lose whatever faith he has left in this world he has left."

Minerva nodded, both pleased and disheartened.

"I shall deliver the news, and hopefully keep him from doing anything rash. He is now more alone than ever without the girl he loves. Even his faithful companion is gone," Albus ducked his head, his wide brimmed wizard's hat covering the escaped tears descent into his beard.

He was only mildly surprised at the comforting hand placed on his thin shoulder from his friend. She rarely showed emotion in and out of school, but when she did, it was always worthwhile. He covered her hand with his own momentarily, drawing on her strength before straightening and wandlessly freshened up his face.

Albus cleared his throat quickly and nodded his adieu to Minerva before heading to the shadowy alcove between houses behind them.

A near silent double pop heralded his departure and arrival at his destination. The place where he ruined the childhood of their prophesied savior just to ensure his safety. He still has nightmares of what Harry must have gone through living here, without love or guidance. Albus could only hope that when Harry learned everything, he wasn't damned for his actions. He already damned himself everyday since placing him here.

Walking to the door with a long, slow pace, he knocked on the door rather than ring the doorbell to garner their attention.

"Hold on just a moment!" Came the false cheery reply of Petunia, who still, to this day, brought both disappointment and pity to the fore of his mind.

Removing his hat so it wouldn't brush the door frame when he entered, he waited until he could hear the click of the door being unlocked. Just like her voice, Dumbledore erected a practiced pleasant face that was the complete opposite of how he felt.

He hated giving news like this, especially to the young man he held in such high regards.

The door opened to reveal the thin, gangly form of Petunia Dursley's smiling face that quickly morphed into a disgusted grimace when she saw who was calling on her.

"What are _you _doing here?" She hissed, her tiny eyes glancing around behind him to look for the gossip mongers that plagued the neighborhood.

Biting back a witty double standard he usually used to both insult and acknowledge someone, he pressed on.

"I come bearing bad news for Harry. I must speak with him at once." He didn't need to inject the somberness in his tone, he felt it aplenty right then.

Glaring at him for a second or two, she fully opened the door and stepped back to grant him entrance. She couldn't repress the urge to get in one last parting shot and said, "just make it quick, _freak_, I don't want to have to clean up more filth than I have to that you bring in."

Uncharacteristically, Albus halted half-way into the house with the urge to bear his magic against this spiteful woman. Of course, he has periodically felt the same urge when confronted by the more unsavory types of people, but he usually just brushes it off and leaves with the air of quiet victory.

Turning his head to the left to look into the dull green of Lily Potter's sister, he just continued to look without doing anything. He didn't even send out a Legilimency probe to give the woman a minor headache. He watched the haughty confidence in her eye's twist to worry that she might have gone to far this time.

Albus turned to fully face the now frightened woman with his tall, willowy frame with a blank expression adorning his bearded face.

"I lost a student today, Mrs. Dursley. An upstanding young woman that would have shook the foundations of both our worlds had she not been struck down this afternoon. She was vibrant, startling intelligent, caring, and most of all steadfast in the belief of right and wrong."

His usually twinkling blue eyes glinted with hardness from a lifetime of experience.

"Your nephew loved her, and she loved him back. They didn't get a chance to share what could have been a beautiful adventure together. But it's gone now with her passing. You see, Petunia Dursley, they weren't freaks, as you so eloquently put it, they were both pure of heart and soul. The radiated the innate goodness of humanity.

"But you, my dear _girl_, you and your family disgust me. You cultivate the worst of what a human could be. You, your husband and son are the living embodiment of the cardinal sins. So, beneath my facade of the chipper, older gentleman, I recoil at the mere _presence _of any of your three."

Albus was now standing half a foot away from the cowering Petunia, towering over her and standing tall. He didn't need to lean over and put his face near hers to intimidate her, his stature and aura did that for him.

"Now if you'll excuse me, I have to go tell _your _nephew the girl he loves is gone and presumed deceased. Good day," Albus said quietly and then bowed his head slightly. He turned on the heels of his feet and swiftly made his way up the stairs to the room he knew Harry occupied.

His diatribe against Petunia was both satisfying and shameful, he knew. It didn't make it feel any less good though, he thought with a rare smirk.

The headmaster rapped twice on the off-white door and entered when he received a strangely bland-sounding, "enter."

Opening the door which still sported a cat-flap, he was greeted by a Harry that sitting rigid as a door on a chair in front of the window. He looked the same as he did at the end of the semester, but their was an odd stiffness about him that worried Albus. The black sweatpants and white t-shirt looked hardly ruffled, like Harry hadn't moved at all recently.

"Good evening, Harry. I'm afraid I bring terrible news." He waited for a request to continue but didn't get one, so he decided to press on despite the curious way Harry was acting.

Albus coughed slightly and continued, "Ms. Granger's home was attacked earlier this evening and her family was killed. We haven't found a trace of Ms. Granger herself, but we are hoping that she is unharmed and the Order is looking for her most diligently."

Again he paused, and Albus was sure something was wrong.

Suddenly, 'Harry' monotonously said, "okay."

Startled, Albus drew his wand and was about to check for curses on his young protege when he felt a heavy presence baring down on him. It was power unlike he had ever known, it even dwarfed the minor demon he had fought in Austria during Grindelwald's reign.

The aged headmaster gasped and steadied his weak knees by grasping the dresser to his left. A quick glance at Harry, who was still looking at door where he entered, told him it wasn't the boy's doing. The presence just kept getting heavier and heavier while his usually composed stance was crumbling.

All at once, the weight left and Albus was left leaning heavily against the dresser, his brow sweaty from the staggering exertion.

"_Hello Albus Dumbledore, I would appreciate it if you don't raise your focus so we don't have to repeat that again. I doubt your body would be joyous at that._" Spoke a melodic female voice, what felt like directly into his ear. It also sounded strangely amused.

"Where are you," Albus asked shakily, yet firmly.

With a voice that tinkled with laughter, it spoke again with what felt directly into his ear. "_Behind you..._"

Albus spun around quicker than one would have thought possible at his age to be greeted by the sight of the closed door he just walked through. A sudden flare of annoyance rose up and then quickly quelled under the knowledge that making an enemy with this much power was just foolhardy.

More tinkling laughter from behind saw him whipping around again, having to stop himself from drawing his powerful wand as to not appear threatening. Sitting behind 'Harry' on the table was one of the most exquisite example of a woman.

Flowing, fiery red hair cascade down her elegant neck and framed her face with short bangs cut right above her eyebrows. Blue eyes that were so blue that they reminded him of the churning sea during a hurricane. Her complexion so fair, Albus was surprised to not see any dark, bluish veins. She was dressed rather lackadaisical in his opinion, with only a loose, white oxford shirt and tight, form fitting aquamarine jeans.

A random notion crossed his mind that this person could easily pass for the god of beauty.

Seemingly reading his thoughts, the bewitching woman laughed in away that reminded Albus of instrumental bells in a symphony he saw once in his youth.

"_Don't worry, I mean Harry no harm,_" she stated while twirling a strand of 'Harry's' hair that was stubbornly sticking up in the back. "_I am rather taken with the young man. My apologizes, I forgot to introduce myself. My name is Kateris and I'm a retired angel._"

Working his jaw not unlike a fish out of water, Albus stuttered out a question."

"W-what do you want from me, Kateris. I'm just an old man, I don't see why you have come here and chose to reveal yourself to me."

More of her bell-like laughter echoed throughout the room. "_We need to have a chat, Albus Dumbledore,_" Kateris' voiced suddenly turning cold and dangerous. "_We need to talk about your position in the world is, and also about Harry._"

Getting his bearings straight and trying to ignore the stifling weight of her power, Albus asked, "where do you want to begin?"

Kateris smirked and wryly said, "_I'm sure we could think of something._" The black hair in her fingers were now twisting and turning at speeds Albus couldn't comprehend.

The ex-angel just continued her twirling of 'Harry's' hair and smiled enigmatically at the aged headmaster before beginning her story.


	11. Chapter 11: Shades of Brown and Red

**A/N:** Hey folks! Another update that I'm sure most will enjoy and will also alleviate some concerns. I know some of you were upset about the events in the last chapter, but this chapter was not aimed to that goal. It's just the next chapter in the story, and not me back-peddling to pander to the masses, so to speak. I also know some of you think this story is slow-going, but let me assure you, the next chapter is where things _really _get going. I had to set up the ball for an alley-oop, so to speak, to get the...er, _stuff _positioned correctly. Well, I'm done pandering I figure, so I hope you enjoy this one! Please read and review if you have anything you want to comment on. I'm doing this for you guys after all!

_Standard disclaimers apply_

**Shades of Brown and Red**

Harry sat there by his moderately sized bed, watching his girlfriend sleep with deep, even breaths. Her lovely face, once full of life and joy, now looked gaunt with the grimace and crinkled brow of sorrow she must be feeling. He wished he could do something for her.

But even he was feeling the depressed indifference due to loosing someone as well. Hedwig, his faithful companion and motherly figure he always liked to please. Harry knew she was an owl, but at the same time, she was one of his earliest constants that never wavered in being by him.

He felt the loss acutely in his chest, and no manner of brainpower could dull it.

The black haired man looked down at the petite hand he was holding, his thumb brushing over her knuckles in a comforting fashion. Oh how he wished he could turn back time and undo all this.

While still looking at their conjoined hands, a knock came from his door and he quietly said, "come in."

Gabriel walked in with a face as somber as his own, that earlier rage that sparked in his eyes now a dull roar, shadowed in his blue irises.

"We need to talk," he said without preamble. Harry spared him a glance and looked down at the sleeping, still form of his first love. He sighed and nodded, squeezed Hermione's hand and got up to follow Gabriel outside the tent.

The dark and stormy sky told him he must have been inside the tent for a few hours, and he wondered what he had missed; Gabriel looked perplexed about something.

Around the once more lit blue flames of the campfire were their out of place chair, in which Remus already occupied one, reading something from a parchment. Curious, Harry split of from Gabriel's trek and meandered up behind Remus' chair.

Leaning on the high-back of the cushioned seat to alert Remus to his presence, he skimmed over the parchment.

"A map?" Harry questioned with a cocked eyebrow.

Without turning, Remus replied, "yeah, it's similar to the Marauder's Map with the way it's set up. I've set some Doppler rune-stones every half-mile since we landed. They sketch out the surrounding area where they drop and update the map."

Impressed, Harry nodded. "Interesting, I was always curious how the map was set up for Hogwarts. I don't see dots correlating to people though. I only see us, why is that?"

"I only keyed us three into the Doppler stones so they would only show us, if I wanted to show _everyone_, I'd need some powdered, ambient energy recyclers and coat this parchment with it. It's a tedious task so they don't blow up in your face, and I figured we wouldn't need it."

He paused and smile grew on his face.

"Funnily enough, when Sirius first tried that method, it blew up in his face. Couldn't regrow his eyebrows for a month."

Despite the recent trauma, Harry managed to snort in amusement.

He rounded Remus' chair and sat in one adjacent to him and across from Gabriel, who was fiddling with that strange Zippo lighter Harry seen back at his Aunt's house. Curious, but not that curious, Harry decided not to ask.

"Harry, what do you want to do with Hermione? We _can _take her along with us, but we could also deliver her to Hogwarts," Gabriel stated in a serious, yet relaxed manner.

Drumming his fingers on his thigh, Harry thought over their numerous scenarios his brain was providing.

"I believe it would be best if she were to stay with us. She'll be in better spirits with people she knows and trusts. That's how she is."

Both Remus and Gabriel nodded, concluding that was the smartest move.

Gabriel spoke up once more, "We only have three bedrooms. Where will she sleep?" With the look on his face, Harry figured he already knew the answer.

"My room," Remus looked up, ready to reprimand him, "I'll be sleeping on the cot in the living room. I don't need much sleep anyways."

Remus looked more agreeable to that, but he did cast an apologetic glance in Harry's direction.

Harry smirked and replied to his look, "don't worry, old man, I won't work to damage your delicate sensibilities." That caused the werewolf to roll his eyes and continued to fiddle with the map with his wand in hand.

A rumble of thunder stole through the forest they were in and Harry glanced up at the dark clouds moving along at a leisurely pace to the south. For some reason, with the recent upswing of storms and lightning, his energy had been more lasting through the days. Usually, he would go all day and when night rolled around, he'd sleep four hours like Gabriel said he would.

Lately though, ever since the world's nexus' started shifting and storms were becoming more of a permanent fixture, he didn't need to sleep. He figured it had something to do with his plasma affinity within his magic.

Amusingly, it made him feel like a rechargeable battery he's seen in stores.

Looking back to his companions, he noted Gabriel was once again puffing on his old-world pipe with fervor, eyes closed to savor the taste and buzz accompanying it. He always wondered what smoking was like ever since he seen his cousin, Dudley, smoking a cigarette with his friends.

"Gabe," he inquired, causing his friend to open his eyes with a curious look. "You got another pipe? I'm curious."

Gabriel shared an amused look with Remus who just shook his head fondly. With Remus' earlier almost-outburst about sleeping arrangements, Harry expected a lecture on his health.

"I doubt you could handle what I'm smoking, Harry. I'll materialize some cigarettes for you, though so you can get a taste of tobacco," he said with waving his free hand lazily in Harry's direction. A still wrapped pack of cigarettes formed in the air in front of Harry, who snatched it and began to inspect it.

"What the difference between tobacco and what you are smoking?" Harry asked, eyeing the new pack in his hand still.

Gabriel replied while Harry was fumbling with the wrapping material. "Well, this stuff came from the angel realm and has more...kick you could say. It's called Alastus Leaves. It was created with a more potent amount of nicotine so our bodies could actually feel it. Even with your enhanced body, Harry, you would probably pass out from the amount."

Remus looked intrigued and asked, "how are your bodies more enhanced? I mean, I know Harry's is from the ritual but yours?"

"When we are recruited by the angels, our bodies and souls are then saturated with celestial energy to be able to do what we do," Gabriel paused to take a drag from his pipe and exhale the smoke, "seeing the true form of an angel without that energy coursing through your essence would cause you to die very painfully."

Like most of the rare times Gabriel answers a question, it just spawned seeming endless more in both Remus and Harry. Harry, used to this by now, just ignored it and continued removing the wrapper.

Finally getting the infernal covering off the pack, Harry opened it and removed a single cigarette from inside. "Here," called Gabriel who tossed him that same Zippo he'd seen earlier. Knowing Gabriel, Harry was slightly wary about anything his guardian just 'gives' him.

Harry held the metallic lighter at arms length while rolling it around his fingers to look at it from all angles. His blonde friend just rolled his eyes and said, "come on, Harry, you can sense on the bond that it's not a prank."

Feeling slightly foolish, Harry flipped the silver cap and struck the wheel to ignite the flame. He cursed loudly and jumped when a silver flame jumped up about a foot before settling down into about an inch tall.

The annoyed, black haired hero looked over at the two laughing men and spat out, "you two are bastards. I won't forget that, Gabriel, you realize that don't you?"

His only reply was a smiling Gabriel and a still laughing werewolf.

Harry sighed and awkwardly placed the cigarette between his lips and lit it with the strange flame. Inhaling directly instead of steadily sucking a bit into his mouth first, he broke down into a horrible tasting and painful coughing fit.

Of course, the other two broke down into more hysterics at his predicament.

"God dammit," more coughing stopped his rant, eyes watering, "very fucking funny! You could have warned me!" He spit, trying to get the odd tasting mucus build-up in his throat.

Remus finally pulled himself together while Gabriel was still howling in laughter, clutching his sides and tears in his eyes.

"Harry," he chuckled again, "you have to go slow with the inhalation. Don't just suck the smoke right into your lungs, you'll end up with an aneurism." That appeared to be to much and he once more broke down in cackles while holding the side of his chair. It was more than Harry could say for Gabriel, who was currently clutching his stomach and making weird wheezing noises.

Warily looking at the cigarette between fingers, he once more took a drag, but this time doing as Remus' suggested. He lit the smoke sit in his lungs for about three seconds and let it out with a slow exhale.

Then the nicotine rush hit his head and a lazy grin spread across his face, his eyes becoming lidded.

"Not bad, not bad at all," Harry slurred, leaning back into his chair and watching the storm clouds.

The other two seemed to finally be done laughing at Harry and just shared a knowing smirk before returning back to their own vices. Gabriel snapped his fingers, his lighter in Harry's hand squeezed out of his grip and flew into Gabriel's own where he lit his pipe.

The next ten minutes were a relaxed reprieve from the previous somber mood when Hermione arrived, and Harry for one was grateful to Gabriel for providing it. Harry's first nicotine rush seemed to wane away and by the time the cigarette was done, he was in a indifferent medium. His mind seemed more focused than it usually is with the state of relaxation, so Harry decided to ask Gabriel about the plasma affinity being affected by the storms.

"Gabriel, with my magic being partial to plasma, does naturally occurring storms affect me any?" Harry cocked his head to side, Remus looked interested and looked at Gabriel as well.

"You know, you'd think after being a 'teacher' for so long, I'd remember to explain things more. It was the shock I guess of you leveling that field," cracked Gabriel while tapping the pipe on his boots to empty the end of ash.

"Well," he started after putting the pipe away. "Being what you are, plasma affinity and all, naturally occurring plasma will, theoretically, energize you and restore your stamina. It's just a theory, mind you, but there you go." He shrugged and looked towards the rumbling sky overhead.

"I think it's more than a theory," insisted Harry, causing both Gabriel and Remus to whip their heads in his direction. Embarrassed by the sudden attention, he rubbed the nape of his neck nervously.

"Really? What does it feel like," asked Remus, curiosity basically dripping from his tone.

_'Yeah, definitely the brains behind the Marauder's,'_ mused a silently laughing Harry.

"Ever since we got out here, for some odd reason I've not needed to sleep. I feel...alive. Like I'm overflowing with energy and not being able to sit still. Do other element compatibles have this issue?"

It looked like Gabriel was mulling it over so Remus went back to his map, flicking his wand this way and that, causing wisps of smoke to appear and fade away.

"I've never heard of someone so affected by their element, most of them just feel more comfortable around it. They never draw ambient energy for the element like you claim to be doing."

"One more thing to make my life even odder, why not," Harry grumbled good-naturedly, nearly over the fact his life would _never _be considered normal.

Their silence was pierced by a loud screech coming towards them from the west, causing all three men to jerk from the sudden noise. Looking in that direction, they could see a shadowy figure flying their direction, and it was obviously an owl.

"No way," breathed a smiling Gabriel, who was rapidly becoming happier by the second.

Now intrigued by Gabriel's exclamation, Harry squinted his eyes to the owl heading their way. Even with his eyesight being enhance, it was hard to see with the light and distance. A few more minutes passed and the closer the owl got, the clearer it became.

Suddenly, Harry gasped and bolted up from his chair. He started running towards the owl he knew so well, swiftly maneuvering himself through the tall trees and into the grassy field on the other side. Running, a full blown grin on his face and eyes watery, he moved closer and closer to one of his oldest friends.

"Hedwig!" He shouted while dodging around a random stump in the ground. The owl let out a joyous sounding screech and began her descent down to his level. Hedwig, only a few feet away, suddenly closed her wings and dived towards her master.

Laughing at his familiar's antics, he caught her and hugged her snowy, white body to his chest, not caring that his eyes were crying relieved tears.

Hedwig shifted around his arms, seemingly trying to burrow her way deeper into his body. She let a contented hoot and stilled while Harry crumpled onto his knees in elation. Harry's eyes finally cleared and looked fondly down at his owl, inspecting her for any injuries.

"You're hurt, Hedwig!" He exclaimed, jumping to his feet and running as fast as he could back to the campsite.

He slid across the slick dirt in their camp and announced, "it's Hedwig! She's hurt Gabriel, can you do anything for her?"

Gabriel strode to them hastily and inspected a noticeably sleeping Hedwig. "It doesn't look like anything major, just some singed feathers and she's tired from the long flight," he said and waved his hand over her body which was still in Harry's arms. The then smoky coloring on Hedwig's left side faded into the normal stark-white it usually is.

Harry sighed and flopped into his previously occupied chair with a cradled Hedwig in the crook of his left arm. Even with the energy funneling into him from the storm above, Harry felt he could sleep a week due to emotional exhaustion.

"Jesus, what a day," Harry grumbled lightly while closing his eyes. He focused his senses on the still sleeping Hermione in his room, making sure she was alright.

He heard Gabriel chuckling and the crunching of footsteps as the impromptu veterinarian went to his chair beside across from him.

"You never know, something could sti-"Gabriel started only for Harry to jump in.

"Don't! Don't you dare jinx this day and make it even more screwy." The growl in his tone caused both the other two men to chuckle. Even they had to admit it was a possibility.

The minutes rolled by in relative silence while they all occupied themselves doing various things that called to them. For Harry, that was just enjoying the close contact of the owl who filled in the roll of being his mother.

Of course, somethings were not meant to last.

"_Hello again_," spoke a familiar voice to all the men in the clearing.

Harry groaned and opened his eyes to see Gabriel and Remus both up and alert, looking around for the source of the voice.

The young hero rolled his eyes and called out, "come on out, Kateris!"

Melodic laughter echoed through the campsite and the beautiful form of the angel materialized standing beside the sitting Harry. Remus was the first to react with a deep, guttural growl while he crouched into a fighting stance. Gabriel just looked annoyed and rolled his eyes before sitting once again.

"Chill out, Remus. You couldn't hurt her even if you tried," a tired Gabriel stated while rubbing the bridge of his nose.

Kateris smiled benignly at Remus and said, "_it's admirable that you protect your friend's son so, wolf. Don't worry, I mean no one here any harm. I've come here just to chat with these two jesters_."

That brought up Remus short, Harry noticed. He saw the werewolf inhale through his nose heavily and quickly stiffened in alarm. It was quite amusing to Harry to see the previously combative scholar turn into a nervous wreck, and it apparently was amusing to the angel as well.

More bell-like laughter tinkled through the camp which visibly calmed Remus before he sat down in his chair rather rigidly. Harry snorted and Remus shot him a look that he basically translated to 'bugger off'.

"What do you want, Kateris?" Harry couldn't help but sense there was some underlying tension between the two from that sentence.

Kateris gave him an amused look, which Harry still thought made her beautiful, before she replied, "_are you still angered by the fact that I beat you at that game...what was it called again_?"

"It's called Super Mario Kart and you knew that already, you just keep wanting to rub it in," ground out a peeved Gabriel, something which would have drawn laughter from Remus if he wasn't so scared for his life at the moment. Harry didn't know the game, but the idea of an angel playing a video game was an amusing thought.

"_Oh hush, don't spoil my fun_," she quipped musically to Gabriel before turning to Harry, "and how have you been, Harry?" The last bit was basically purred but Harry didn't catch the sensual tone it took.

"I'm fine, my snarky angel. It's been a trying day to say the least."

Kateris nodded her stunning head in agreement, her hair looking like living fire with the bobbing motion.

"_I must agree with you, but those events, regrettable as they were, are not why I'm here_," her lilting voice taking on a serious tone. She looked around for a second, making Harry confused before she twitched a sculpted finger and a similar chair spawned beside his. Kateris sashayed enticingly to it and elegantly sat in it before returning to her discussion.

"_I admit, after meeting you, young Harry, that I was...intrigued by you. I went to your house today to talk and of course perturb my old friend, Gabriel_," at this, she shot a tickled look to Gabriel who flinched. "_Interesting story I heard from Haedorin when I checked in, 'Gabriel'. You remember what happened the last time you used my brother's name; are you such a glutton for punishment_?"

Knowing about the story himself, Harry smirked at the pained face his guardian pulled at the word punishment. Remus, though, just looked confused and he spoke up.

"Excuse me, but I don't know this story, could you fill me in? I need future blackmail against my new friend." Remus grinned nervously at Kateris, attempting to open up around the charming woman.

Kateris smiled radiantly at Remus and was about to start the tale but only got her mouth open before Gabriel covered it with his hand. Harry blinked, he didn't even see him move from where he was in the chair.

"Don't even go there or I'll tell them about the bet you lost against Zachariah." Kateris just narrowed her eyes in response since her mouth was still covered. Gabriel smirked down at her and asked, "deal?"

She rolled her eyes, nodded in agreement and she was free from Gabriel's big hands which covered almost half the bottom of her face. She rubbed her jaw as if it were aching with her right hand and her left flicked Gabriel on his turned backside, and he shot forward a few feet before landing in a moaning heap.

"Not fair, Kat!" His whining voice coming from the tangle of limbs caused the two men to laugh and were joined by the chiming laughter of his assailant.

"_Moving forwards, when I went to your house, imagine my surprise when I found a...carbon homunculus in your stead. I was about to trace your signature and follow it when Albus Dumbledore showed up_," she saw the startled look on Harry's face, "_don't worry, I talked with him. He's aware of my presence, but he doesn't know where you are. I convinced him to busy himself elsewhere till you return_."

Harry traded a look with Gabriel and he turned to address Kateris, "what did Dumbledore want with me when he came there?"

A warm smile graced her sculpted face when she looked at him. "_He told me that he was coming to tell you about the attack on Hermione Granger's family. He may be a tad Machiavellian, but aren't we all? Albus Dumbledore is many things but he does have a kind heart_."

Although often confused and beleaguered by his scheming headmaster, Harry was still fond of the man. Most of the time, he was stuck between wanting to either strike or hug him. Harry thought of him as a daft grandfather he loved, but still wanted to throttle on occasion.

It appeared Kateris read his rambling thoughts when she quirked a humored smile at him while her startling blue irises _swam _in a way that was hauntingly enchanting. _'What is it about this woman...' _Harry mentally grumbled, trying to ignore the _want _his body produced whenever she was near.

"Stop torturing my charge, please," Gabriel said having caught the exchange, his voice having an overture of exasperation and amusement.

Harry huffed in annoyance and Kateris laughed, sending pleasant chills down his spine.

The angel turned her head to the tent and her flowing, red hair flounced around with the movement. She continued looking that way for a moment and then turned back to Gabriel. "_I see you brought Hermione Granger here. Is there more of a reason than just her needing a place to stay_?"

Her coworker raised a jesting eyebrow at the question and Harry also thought he noted a tone in her question. It sounded a little bit like...guarded jealousy? He didn't even know what to think of that, so he just discarded it for now.

"Her and Harry are dating. He thinks it would help her heal from the trauma of losing her family and reaffirm Hermione that she isn't alone."

Kateris' eyes shifted in Harry's direction almost imperceptibly but he did catch it. _'Who thought angel's could be jealous?' _Truthfully, he didn't know if he should be feeling complimented or scared that she had an eye for him. It was a thrilling mixture, that he _was _sure of.

A moment passed in silence and she stood, her chair fading to nothingness, and she decided, "_I shall take my leave now, I have done what I came to do. Remus_," she nodded to the dazed looking werewolf, "_it was a pleasure. Gabriel, I'll see you again_."

She turned to look at Harry, her eyes taking a fond glint that made her eyes do that weird swimming thing Harry found so enrapturing. "_Always good to see you, my lo-friend_." Before he could ponder the stutter in her good-bye, she disappeared so fast it looked like she was never there to begin with.

"Wow, she's actually jealous of Hermione. Never expected that one to be jealous of anything," came Gabriel's shocked, yet amused, voice. Remus looked at Harry, a mixture of confusion and suppressed laughter on his face. Harry huffed and threw up the arm not holding Hedwig and rose to head back inside with his owl.

When he stepped into the tent, he heard his two companions laughter finally bubble free and he rolled his eyes unconsciously. Heading to his room, he picked up a wicker basket that was supposed to hold fruits and the like. Once in his room, he glanced at Hermione and his eyes once more saddened at the thought of her loss and pain.

Shaking off the depression threatening to rise up again, he made his way to the side of the bed not occupied by the chair he was using earlier.

Harry set down the wicker basket and raised his free right hand while crouched so it was hovering over it. He visualized the basket warping and elongating into a raised perch with both a cushioned landing and bar for Hedwig to stand on. Once he had the image in his head, he focused on gathering his magic. Ever since they started Sonancy, channeling his magic had increasingly become more instinctual rather than the struggle it started out as.

Feeling the energy thrumming up and down his outstretched arm, he trilled a low whistle while raising from his haunches, his arm following. When he was finally standing, he cut of the whistle and appreciated the creation his magic made.

He set Hedwig down on the cushioned pillow-like landing on the perch and idly stroked her downy feathers on the top of her head. Harry chuckled fondly when she subconsciously pushed her head into his palm.

A shuffling of the sheets on his bed drew his attention and in a flurry of quick movement, he was once again holding Hermione's hand where it seemed she was finally waking up.

Those beautiful cinnamon orbs he loved so much opened slowly and at first he could see the fearful confusion in them while the flickered about his bedroom. When they finally rested on his own green ones, they widened in shock and then slowly dimmed into horrified resignation.

It seemed to Harry she hoped it was all a terrible nightmare. Just the look in her eyes made him want to crush Voldemort's forces right then and there, while the mysterious power he'd been feeling in the pit of his stomach started calling for vengeance. But his iron will suppressed it because he knew Hermione needed him there.

"Harry...are my parent's...are they...?" The tone was pleading, hoping that this was all just a dream. Harry heart clenched painfully, and his throat closed at knowing he would have to ruin her world with his answer. He could only nod, eyes leaking tears down his smooth, pale cheeks.

At first there wasn't a sound. Hermione just continued to look up at him from where her head rested on his pillow. Then she closed her eyes and then clenched them even more closed, as if trying to force herself to go back to sleep. Her first sob shook her whole body and her hand clenched his almost painfully tight.

"I'm so sorry, 'Mione." It would never be enough, he knew that. But he knew she knew he was an orphan, just like she was now thanks to Voldemort's crusade. More sobs escaped her throat and then almost screaming, she cried out into his room at the unfairness of it all.

Harry don't know why she did it, but she pulled his hand towards her along with his body and he got the message. He laid down beside her, dwarfing her in comparison almost, and gathered her into his arms. In seconds, the front of his shirt was soaked through but Harry honestly didn't care, and he continued to rub her back while pulling her even more into his torso.

He knew then that when he returned to merry old England, he was going to end the reign of Voldemort. Not just him, but the fanatical followers who espoused his belief's as well.

Not for the Light, not for the magical community. Not even because it was the right thing to do.

Harry was going to do it for her.

* * *

Two days rolled by faster than any of the men wanted to admit. Gabriel decided to stay there for a while and plan out the latter of their trip with Remus so Harry could care for a grieving Hermione. For Harry, that was the worst part.

In those two days, she hadn't so much as spoken a word, but he continued his ministrations of her with painstaking care. He'd cook for her, feed her, walk her to the bathroom, walk around outside while holding her hand silently, feed her again, and then settle in for the night just holding her. He didn't mind the silence, he just couldn't stop worrying that he was doing something wrong.

Currently they were in bed together, she was curled up to his side with her head on his chest while he was leaning against the backboard of the bed reading to her. He read mostly anything he brought with him or whatever Gabriel would periodically go out and get. From advanced astrophysics to historical biography's of goblin wars for school, he'd read them.

"...holds atomic nuclei together; and weak, which is concerned with the transmutation of elements and radioact-" Harry was cut off by a surprising change of pace.

"Harry," her voice was weak from the lack of use, "why do you do this for me?"

Slightly startled by her finally speaking, Harry didn't answer her for a second. "Why wouldn't I? I told you I would always be there for you, and I'd never let you fall," he replied throatily, the nonstop reading took it's toll on his voice it seemed.

She didn't respond at first and he thought she would delve back into being silent again. He internally sighed when that seemed to be the case and was about to go back to reading again when she spoke up finally.

"But why though? Why do you try so hard for me?" He could her the sadness in her words, but also the self-deprecation as well.

Harry swallowed, moisturizing his dry throat and vocal cords before he answered her demur question, "you never stopped trying for me. I won't allow someone I respect and...and love to flounder."

Her breathing halted and he could feel the stillness in her form before she started again, then she rolled her body so her chin was cutely resting on his abdominal muscles while looking up into his bright green eyes with her own wide ones. Harry was expecting to see the red, puffiness around her eyes from crying but he didn't see any.

"You love me?" She asked, surprised. _'More damned self-deprecation,' _he cursed inside his head.

He gave it a moment before he replied, he wanted her to understand more than anything that he did _truly _love her. "How could I _not _love you, Hermione? I love everything you do, and did before I even realized I did. _You _are my only true family."

She continued to just look up into his eyes, not moving even when a strand of her curly, chestnut colored hair flowed down onto her face. Hermione, half draped on Harry's chest, lurched up and claimed his lips with a sudden passion that surprised Harry almost into inaction. Luckily, his newfound hormones overrode his shock and he began to reply to her searching mouth.

Harry felt Hermione shift from his side to basically straddling his left leg and her hands grasping at his neck, trying to bring him closer to her face. His mind already on autopilot, Harry's hands came up and gripped Hermione's jean-covered hips gently.

Enjoying this moment thoroughly while his tongue was dancing with Hermione's own, but he knew he had to end this before they both ended up doing something they'd later regret. Harry felt that this was a relief valve for Hermione, with all of her pain and sorrow now pouring out of her in sexual tension. Slowly, and achingly, Harry pushed her back by her hips, and even though Hermione was trying to get his head to follow her forced movement, he wasn't moving.

Her eyes open, Harry could see the slight dilation of her pupils from the rush of lust, but he could also see the soft burn of pain there as well. He knew she was smart enough to not take this the wrong way when he pushed her away, and was proved correct when Hermione's eyes filled with moisture. Tears not from rejection, but from familial loss spilled over and quivers in her body shook them both while she cried on his chest.

Harry hoped this was her finally mourning their loss and not just bottling up more of her emotions like she had been doing lately. Hermione was very emotional despite her hiding behind a impregnable wall of intellect. He'd seen it before in her, but even he knew that nothing was immovable.

Hermione finally stopped with the silent sobs and looked up into his green-eyes before she spoke, "I know they died before their time, but something my mother said makes me realize that they won't regret it."

Seeing the question in Harry's eyes, she continued. "She said that they would die happy knowing they found each other. So I will grief for them, but I won't let it rule me. I have my own life to live as well. I want to die happy like they did." Harry's hackles began to rise at the fatalistic nature her words were alluding to, but she cut him off before he began to lecture her.

"I don't mean that I want to die soon. I want to grow old, have children, make the world a better place. I don't want to find love, because...because I've already found it." Her golden-brown eyes latched onto his more firmly, trying to relay her intent to him with them. The increasing widening of his own eyes told her that he did indeed catch the meaning.

Wanting to hear the words that he hoped beyond hope that she was meaning, he urged in a soft voice, "say it."

"I...I love you." It came out a damn near whisper, but catch them he did thanks to his increased hearing. He lurched forward from his sitting position on the headboard of the bed and claimed her lips, reminding him funnily enough, of her own action only minutes ago.

Outside the tent, Gabriel looked over his shoulder with pipe in mouth, and fondly smiled around the wood between his lips. Remus, who was etching another batch of Doppler rocks, caught his look and asked, "what is it?"

Gabriel continued to look that direction for a moment then turned back. "Just a reprieve from the storm, Remmy. Just a reprieve."

Confused, Remus looked over to the tent as well and noted the lack of the two teenagers, even if one of them didn't even remotely resemble one anymore. Eyes narrowing, Remus shot Gabriel a look. "They aren't...?"

He trailed off, not truly wanting to word the question pertaining to the son of a friend he almost considered his own. Luckily, Gabriel understood his meaning and just smirked in a mocking fashion.

"Of course not. Being a Harry, I know better than most how much of a bastard we can be. But even we are not _that _much of a bastard. They are just...talking." Another smirk graced his face and he puffed happily on his pipe once more.

Remus looked back at the tent and inhaled through his nose, trying to pick up any scent that could be dubious in nature. Sometimes it paid off to be a werewolf, and other times it was a bit annoying. He learned to breath through his mouth when passing a public bathroom quick during his days at Hogwarts.

He heard a chuckle coming from across the low-lit fire and turned his attention back to his new friend. "That's cheating, wolfy. Just imagine if they _were _doing something in there, you'd be smelling them going at it."

Remus' face blanched at the rushed action that could have resulted in him smelling sex of his young charge. Not to mention that of a teenage woman. The look on his face made Gabriel start up with his barking laughter mixed in with strangled coughs from inhaling smoke at the same time.

In between his strained laughter, Gabriel managed to choke out, "just some food for thought."

* * *

The next day had a marked change in atmosphere around the camp. For one thing, Hermione was actually intermingling with the other two men without Harry at her side. Another thing was that she had even laughed at a one of Gabriel's jokes.

Still sleeping, Harry was sprawled across the bed he had shared with Hermione the night before. Despite giving the room to Hermione for her stay with them, Remus had finally decided to let them share if there was no fooling around going on. Although, Gabriel had to basically drag him away from the room a couple of times when he was watching over them.

Softly snoring and his longer hair sticking up in random directions, Harry was found by an amused looking Hermione and Gabriel.

"Are you sure we should do this, sir?" Her tone was amused, albeit not wanting to scare Harry _too _much.

"Please Hermione, my name is Gabriel. Use it. And of course we have to do it, it's a matter of honor and my own personal amusement."

Trying to stay quiet was quite the task around Gabriel she soon realized after talking to the man for the past few hours. He had an odd sense of humor that, oddly enough, reminded her a bit of Harry and also that of Sirius Black. Currently, she was trying to keep from bursting out in a fit of laughter and waking her boyfriend and ruining Gabriel's impromptu prank.

Her turned to look at the petite brunette and whispered, "I'm surprised he's been asleep this long, he's been having trouble sleeping lately so I'm glad you finally got him to sleep," turning back to the sleeping Harry, he missed the light coloring blooming on Hermione's face. "When I do this, he might...freak out a bit, so you might want to back up a bit."

Hermione nodded and backed away to the canvased wall behind her. Gabriel flicked his hand, ignoring Hermione's surprised gasp when a globule of water sprung up into existence above Harry's head. He threw a smirk over his shoulder at her and winked before snapping his fingers.

Two things then happened in rapid succession: one, the water expanded into a flat, sheet like body of water, and two, it fell downwards under the influence of natural gravity and crashed onto a now soaked and panicked looking Harry.

"Jesus!" Yelped a soggy Harry, who jumped up and promptly collapsed over the side of the bed. Hearing the barking laughter of his guardian, he sat up from the floor and was about to start flinging out his retaliation when he heard other laughter. Laughter that he knew very well.

He whipped his head over to the two and caught sight of the newly up and about Hermione. Shocked out of his need for revenge against Gabriel, he continued to stare at his hysterically laughing girlfriend. Harry shook his head, sending water every which way, and suddenly got a wicked idea.

A very predatory looking grin spread over his face and he looked once again at Hermione, who was still laughing too hard to notice. He jumped up onto his bare feet, vaulted over his bed, and picked up his now sober girlfriend in a waterlogged hug. Of course, Gabriel just laughed even louder at the screeching and laughing teenagers as Harry struggled to keep a now wet Hermione from escaping his arm.

Considering Harry's new size, it was pretty futile for Hermione to try and escape.

Their noise seemed to attract Remus and his face lit up in amusement as the still two struggling teenagers came into view. He looked at a laughing Gabriel who had yet to realize his presence and whipped out his wand and flicked it upward in his direction.

Water, conjured directly above Gabriel's hunched over form, fell noisily onto him where he then yelped and caught the attention of Harry and Hermione. The three then began to laugh again, but this time at the expense of a now soaked Gabriel.

After they all dried off thanks to a few charms and calmed their laughter, Gabriel clapped his hands with new excitement blooming on his face. "I think today we can finally get this quest going once more!"

Hermione looked at Harry curiously, so he filled her in. "Gabriel is looking for this forest spirit that roams this forest. Apparently, it has an item that was made by _the _Merlin."

As soon as he said that, he knew he screwed up by the dawning look of understanding lit upon Hermione's face. _'I just basically admitted that I lied to her about going to see those doctors.' _Harry thought.

"I knew you weren't telling me the truth! So are you going to tell me why...well, why you look like this?" She gestured at his body, her face both a tad victorious but mostly curious.

Gabriel groaned, causing the two young lovers to look curiously at him. He looked at Harry with exasperation all over his face and told him, "I just _knew _it would be you to give it away." Harry just shrugged with an unrepentant grin.

"Fine," Gabriel said and turned his head in Hermione's direction. "Long story short, I'm Harry's Guardian Angel as well as another version of Harry himself from a different reality. I jump to different realities helping my alternate's."

Harry and Remus chuckled at the glazed look in Hermione's eyes before it snapped back into focus.

"So you are an...angel?" She asked unbelieving.

Once more, Harry and Remus burst out into laughter, this time at Gabriel's expense. Harry, the first to recover, turned to his girlfriend and hugged her close. "Love, Gabriel isn't an angel, but he _does _work for them. Trust me, you would know if you met one." His teasing was softened by the fact his eyes were only showing fondness down at her.

Hermione huffed then jerked right back to Gabriel about to ask something, but he cut her off. "I'm sorry, but I can't do that," she was about to say something again but he once again spoke over her, "and no I'm not reading your mind."

She looked sad for a moment until Harry wrapped her in his long arms, comforting her after having a feeling he knew what she was going to request. He leaned over and kissed the top of her head through the long curly strands, getting her to smile in thanks and hugging his arms closer.

"Anyways! Let's get to it, we got a long walk today. Oh, and I'll materialize something for you to wear for hiking, Hermione." Hermione smiled and nodded in thanks while Gabriel and Remus retreated outside Harry's room to pack up everything.

Harry led her over to the now dry bed by the hand and sat down with her on his lap. He looked down into her face, a familiar look of inquisitiveness warring in her eyes. He spoke up, giving her a little jump, "Gabriel isn't allowed to answer certain questions due to working with angels. He'll give vague ones, but not the whole answer. Just a warning for my curious one." He once again leaned down slightly and pecked her on the forehead with his lips.

Hermione smiled up at him and hugged him around the torso before asking, "are you ever going to tell me why you are so big now?"

This caused Harry to laugh which made Hermione bounce a little on his lap. "Sorry about that. Um, this best way to put it is that Gabriel did a ritual that unlocked my mind, meaning I can use the entirety of it rather than just the small amount we normally use. Trust me, that was an interesting experience." He shivered at the remembered pain that it caused, and sometimes, he would get residual aches in his joints still.

"Was it painful? And that still didn't answer how it made you grow," Hermione asked when she saw him shiver. She poked him in the ribs from where she was still sitting in his lap when he didn't immediately answer.

He gave a jump and glared down at her innocent looking grin before replying. "The pain was...unique. I could feel the neural forest in my mind stretching and activating while the ritual did it's work. It was at the same time agony mixed with pleasure, kind of like stretching after sitting still for a long time.

"But the ritual that we did is also unique to each individual that the Guardian's perform it with. Gabriel told me I'm the first he's done it for because every other Harry either gave him bad vibes or they simply refused. But from what he told me about it, the ritual does different things for each person it's used on. We still don't know the full effect it's done for me, but thing's are...different now."

Hermione looked up into his face curiously. "What do you mean by different?"

"Everything is so much clearer to me now. I can see by the scuff on your knee and on your palms that recently you fell down onto," he looked down at the knee in question for a second, "that carpet in your living room."

Her jaw dropped open in shock and leaned back back to stare at him. It was quiet funny, to Harry, how she looked at the moment and couldn't help but chuckle a bit at her expression.

"Hey, don't laugh at me!" She mock-pouted and slapped his shoulder, something that reminded him of a conversation he had with Gabriel not too long ago. He put it away in his mind for later analysis, for now, he had a curious Hermione on his hands.

"Sorry, couldn't help myself. You're _very _cute when startled, you know that right," he teased with a grin.

She rolled her eyes, but couldn't help the heat that bloomed across her face. "Stop changing the subject and explain how you knew...well, knew all that!"

Harry shrugged and retorted gently, "it's easy for me to make deduced assumptions like that. I see things in a very rational and logical fashion now, but I'm still me essentially. It makes me sound like some kind of robot, but I assure you I'm not. I still laugh at Gabriel's crappy jokes, I still love flying, and I still have my adoration of you."

Hermione grinned at the somewhat sappy ending and nodded. "Well that's good, I'm not sure I could date a robot," Harry chuckled a bit, "but please illuminate me about the growing thing."

"Well, like I said, the ritual does different things for different people. One of the other things it did for me personally was to speed up my evolution, as it were. It corrected the damage the mistreatment and malnutrition done to me by the Dursley's as well."

A cocked head was his answer to his description and until he raised an eyebrow in question, she didn't speak. "I'm just not understanding as to how it could _speed _up something like evolution. Evolution takes thousands and millions of years to produce changes and the abilities to adapt to an environment."

"I read up on this in the library and thanks to the way my brain now works, I can understand pretty much anything I put my head to learning about. The rate of change, when it comes to evolution, is not fixed on what you could consider time. Time is relative, after all. _This _change," he gestured to his torso with the arm not wrapped around Hermione's waist, "was wrought by a biological change on the atomic level by magic. This is one of those times where you can logically blame something on magic."

That did cause Hermione to laugh, as one of the long-going argument between them was about the way the magical world just blamed strange events on magic itself. Hermione argued that everything could be explained rationally, and Harry was of the opinion that sometimes that it did apply. It was a fun pastime and they both knew it was not serious in it's duration.

Plus, it gave Harry a reason to rile Hermione up and get her flustered about something. She really did look all kinds of hot when her hackles were raised.

"Alright, I will admit there are times when you _can _blame it on magic. But still, it just sounds a little fantastical to me, with you suddenly becoming...more."

Harry nodded and smiled reassuringly. "I promise you Hermione that I'm still me. I don't know if I could be considered a modern-human by genetic standards, but I'm still a human. I tell you one thing, though, if I knew how much it would hurt to change into what I am now, I probably would of passed on it." For some reason, this caused Hermione to give a long and full belly laugh.

"Only you, Harry, would pass on the chance to look like an Adonis. Men would kill to look like you do now, and you don't care one whit do you?" She chuckled again and hugged him closer. Whatever he said, it appeared to both amuse her and make her proud in him.

"Well, I know I have a good – er – figure now, but the height thing is moderately annoying at times." Harry chuckled inwardly at the remembered times he had banged his head on a doorsill.

"How tall are you now, actually? You might be the tallest person I know."

Giving his brain a minute to calculate the actual height was one of the few new tricks he picked up. Upon his awakening, his bodily awareness was beyond what he figured it should be. Just trying to figure out how much his body _did _change led him to this discovery, and he could give a close estimate to his body weight all the way to the size of his big toe if he chose to do so.

"One hundred and ninety-four centimeters, roughly. Six-foot four if you understand that better."

From Hermione's reassured nod, he could tell that is what she figured it to be at an earlier time.

They both sat there in that position for a few minutes before deciding to get up and help pack up the camp. Being a wizarding tent, it didn't really need much attention and it was folded up and shrunk within a matter of moments.

"Alright folks," Gabriel announced, standing before the other three members. "We're heading further west into some more woods. Remus, keep dropping those Doppler's. Harry, try to focus your magic through your body while we walk, consider it endurance training. Hermione, stay beautiful. And last, but not least, Hedwig, scout overhead and call if you see anything...noteworthy." With that, Hedwig gave a screech and took to wing, heading west ahead of them.

Seeing Hedwig alive and well did relieve Hermione somewhat of the loss the attack brought, she had thought the familiar was killed alongside her parents. That did raise questions, among all four of the party, about whose owl it really was. Whatever the case, Hermione was ecstatic Harry's owl survived the blaze.

During the four hours into the day's hike, Harry filled Hermione in on everything that's happened and what's coming in the future. From his magical training, which she was adamant about learning some too, to the elvish arrival coming in October, Harry detailed everything.

They were passing an outcropping of shaded boulders, when a screeching Hedwig dived to their location as if the hounds of hell were chasing her.

"Whoa girl, what's up?" Harry asked, looking to Gabriel as he was the only one who could understand her.

Hedwig kept squawking and screeching from her position above their heads, circling in a lazy pattern. Gabriel soon smiled widely and Harry and the other two could detect the upsurge of excitement that eclipsed his earlier actions.

"I didn't think it would happen this early on!" He exclaimed while peering off into the dark woods that seemed to spread in all directions. If Harry had to guess where Gabriel was looking towards, he'd estimate it was northern.

Hermione though looked slightly dazed, not yet used to the whirlwind that was Gabriel's buoyant behavior. "What's happening?" She queried, grabbing Harry's hand in nervousness, but curious nonetheless.

"He's near." Was the only eery response they got from the guardian, but it was clear who 'he' was.

All four members eyes were now focused toward the direction Gabriel was looking, searching and listening for any hint that the mysterious fairy spirit was nearing. Then they heard it; the slow and cautious thumps of heavy steps echoing through the now silent forest. Even the french wildlife so predominant there was still.

"Beware, travelers! I mean thee no ill-will!" The warning came in a deep, gravely voice that was strangely kind. Harry could also detect the slight warble of loneliness in the spirits tone; he would know, his first eleven years of existence was the example of lonely.

More cracks and snaps of dried foliage came from the darkness, even more cautious and pacifistic than before. Harry glanced over at his guardian and only saw the characteristic friendly and open smile that Gabriel usually wore, more than likely to try and show Bugul Noz that they were indeed open to the idea of meeting.

Harry's eyes rapidly whipped back to the trees when he saw a swinging flame in the darkness, it was odd to see such a thing, despite living in a magical world. The shadows that were so prevalent before seemed to dissipate and he saw it was an old-fashioned lantern, held by a thick, dull-green arm with one too many fingers. The closer the spirit came, the more Harry understood why travelers in the distant past would flee in horror at the sight of it.

It was hideousness that seemed to be the reason the word was created in the first place. Tall and dark-green, it was as wide as the tree of the forest around them. Nearly as tall too, Harry figured he only came up to the fairies chest to give a good idea of how tall it was. It's head was bald and had a humanoid look to it, but with four black, beady eyes shining from Bugul's lantern. His gut was protruding and large, rolling over his makeshift loincloth covering it's lower half.

About ten meters away, he stopped and waited, expecting the four of them to scurry off but Harry could see that it expressed surprise that they haven't already done so. He gave Bugul Noz a friendly smile, echoing Gabriel to show he wasn't going anywhere. The black-haired hero also squeezed Hermione's hand, relaying that everything was okay when he could feel her stiffen in alarm.

"Bugul Noz," Gabriel greeted with a respectful bow. "My companions and I come searching for you, not in fear or spite, but in good spirits and friendship. What say you?"

The forest spirit stood stock still, more from shock than anything, just gazing at the four people greeting him as a friend. It lowered it's outstretched arm holding his lantern to his side before he replied. "Greetings to you fower, it has been many moons since I've last had talks and friends. Would thou permit me the honor of joining me for a meal?"

Smiling broadly, Gabriel turned to get Harry's and the other two's acquiescence to dinner and none faltered in accepting. Harry could feel his girlfriend basically vibrating in place from curiosity at the thought of a being unheard of in both mundane and magical worlds. At least, not confirmed to be real of course. He had to stifle the laugh threatening to bubble forth at the look on her face and just hugged her closer to his side, smiling fondly down at the witch.

Gabriel answered Bugul Noz's request with a smile, a nod and an even shallower bow than before. Bugul seemed to smile, if Harry could call what it did a smile, and practically flounced away, gesturing for them to follow him back into the forest where he came from.

The four traded looks before Gabriel spoke. "See I told you he was a nice guy. And Hermione, don't pester him with constant questions, he's been alone for a _very _long time, I doubt he'd enjoy being interrogated after meeting someone other than himself after so long." Despite the words being chiding, the smile on his face took away the sting it would have had if he were serious. Remus and Harry chuckled while Harry just hugged her to his side with his now free arm and kissing the top of her untameable mane of hair.

"Fine, but don't you dare hog him!" Her words caused all the men to look at her agog, even Harry was dumbfounded.

"He's not some animal, Hermione," Gabriel forewarned, looking a tad tense.

Hermione scoffed, a mischievous spark in her eyes. "I know that! I mean, he's just so adorable. He's like a kicked puppy, I just want to hug him."

Silence.

"Only you, Hermione, would think he looks adorable. I thought it was a one-off with Crookshanks, but now I know you're insane."

That seemed to be all it took for Remus and Gabriel to burst out into laughter, Harry not far behind them in joining. Hermione pouted petulantly, stuck her nose in the air, and marched after Bugul Noz, intent on having a talk with the gentle spirit.

Harry smiled fondly at her back, his riotous laughter down to just chuckles at his girlfriend's antics, and thought to himself, _'I really do love that girl.'_


End file.
